


Mirror, Mirror

by DarthSayahSwag



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Hashtag we making a new genre, I just made that last tag up, I only write happy endings!, Magic Mirror - Freeform, Past Abuse, Time Loop Artifact, TimeSkype, past/present OQ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-01 19:51:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 27,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15780918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthSayahSwag/pseuds/DarthSayahSwag
Summary: Emma is working her side-job as a mover when she finds the mirror, shattered in the back of a wardrobe. She takes it home, drawn to it for some reason.Regina finds the mirror in the back of her mother's old wardrobe. It was once broken and put away in a time of duress. Yet the mirror she is holding looks as good as new.When Regina speaks into the mirror one night, Emma answers.Through the mirror, not only do they learn they're years apart, but they are extraordinarily threaded throughout one another's lives. A single moment may have kept them from knowing each other at all.As their paths unfold they begin to change each other's past, present and future through the mirror.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mirror Mirror [ ART ]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15714048) by [mippippippi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mippippippi/pseuds/mippippippi). 



> Thank you to all who read. Some notes: There are indeed mentions of Robin. He's not at all a good man in this story and that is important to Regina's narrative in this particular tale.  
> I know nothing about bails and bounties so just live in my tale and pretend that's how it goes, suspend your disbelief!  
> Enjoy your supernova! I hope you will enjoy this tale as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to ma friend Emily for the TimeSkype tag name. And thanks to my artist, Mippippippi  
> 

“How did you get someone with a house like this to hire us?” Emma cut off the tape on the latest box of items she finished packing up. Leroy grunted as he picked the box up and stacked it atop the other boxes they completed. The items inside were expensive and heavy. Emma was sure the candle holders were made of real gold, or something similar. 

“Some old crone hired us. She’s cheap. Anyone that hires us is cheap.” Leroy spoke of the moving company that he ran with only three of his brothers, the Seven Sons. It was a side gig he’d offered to Emma. Steadier income while she worked her way up the ranks at her other job.

The room they packed seemed to carry only useless knickknacks. Emma recognized an old scale, the weights stacked beside it. Quartz crystals, an odd metal goblet that was as heavy as it looked and other strange objects that once decked shelves and a solid, heavy-looking table that sat in the center of the room. 

“What even are these things? Did they raid an antique magic shop?” Emma remarked as she wrapped up another curiosity, a hand that she hoped was made of wax. It’s palm was outstretched as the fingertips held a cloudy globe that reflected the light. Emma wrapped it quickly and placed it in a box marked ‘fragile’ on the sides. 

“The old woman that hired us is probably an actual witch. Wouldn’t that be something.” Ruby joked. Ruby, a bartender, once told Emma she needed to “stop drinking alone” and despite Emma’s protest that she “she technically had Ruby” introduced her to Leroy, another lone-drinker and fellow misanthrope. From there on, the trio made a solid friendship, working together as movers on weekends, and meeting at Ruby’s work place for drinks the rest of the week

“Ha, that would be a story for free drinks alright.” Emma saw some interesting stuff while working with Leroy. From peoples’ hobbies to their nighttime habits to their downright kinks. She was beginning to think she had seen it all. She often wondered if people who hired them didn’t care if their movers saw or knew what they packed up in their closets, but to Emma, she didn’t care. As long as she got paid. 

Emma opened a door to a large, oak cabinet with a note taped to its front. ‘Pack contents, do not move cabinet’. 

Inside, hanging up were various outfits. They looked to be dresses and robes with intricate design and embroideries stitched along the hems. The colors bold, deep reds and purples, blacks and blues, golds and silver threads lined and embroidered into patterns on  everything. The materials silky, velvet or lacy and fine under Emma’s touch.

“That or they’re really into Renaissance Faires.” Emma told her companions as she pulled out a dress. She held it out. Leroy gave the offered article of clothing a funny look and Ruby gasped. She bounced over to the cabinet Emma was working on. 

“Some of these actually look pretty amazing.” Ruby said as she reached in, pulling out a dress with a lovely, decorated corset. 

“I think you’re just into the laces on the back.” Emma joked. She folded the dress carefully. Packing it away into yet another box. 

Ruby held the dress she picked out to herself. It looked as if it were made for her. Ruby hummed to herself. 

“I could get into Faires myself if they wear these.” Ruby mentioned. Emma shook her head at her friend. She reached into the cabinet for another article of clothing.

A glint of light caught Emma’s eye, near the bottom corner of the cabinet. She frowned. Kneeling, as she pushed hems out of her way. 

A shattered mirror, framed in black leaned against the back wall of the cabinet. The frame seemed to be made of a shiny black metal shaped into intricate branches that crossed over each other and held a crown at its top. Along the bottom, strange letters were engraved in what looked to be a trunk. 

A rather large shard was missing from its center and the rest was too shattered to make out much of anything within. Emma could tell that if the glass the frame held were replaced, the mirror would be quite beautiful. 

Emma reached out to it. She pulled it from its resting place, gingerly so as not to displace anymore shards. She set it outside of the cabinet, running a finger along the frame. As her fingers touched the engravings, Emma swore they seemed to glow. She frowned at the thought, she was imagining things, in this strange room, within a stranger’s home. 

“That mirror is a priceless family heirloom.” Emma’s shoulders tightened at the tone of that voice. The owner of it sounded quite annoyed. “If the service I’m getting out of hiring movers includes broken heirlooms, then I want my money back.”

Emma turned around. An older woman, with little brown left in her whitening hair stood at the door to the room they were packing. She was staring straight at the mirror Emma had taken out. Her lips bore a red lipstick that was much too bright. Too bold.

She turned her glare on Emma. “How did you break it? It’s been through several moves and generations. I thought it unbreakable.” 

Emma opened her mouth to speak. 

“We were here the entire time.” Leroy broke in. “From what I know, nothing was broken.” 

Emma nodded. 

“I found it like this, inside of the cabinet.” She told the old woman. Their customer. What did Leroy say her name was? Cora? Cora Mills, Emma reminded herself. 

Cora narrowed her eyes at Emma. She glanced at the cabinet. Her mind seemed to be elsewhere. Cora frowned at the cabinet, then the mirror. When her gaze returned to Emma, she seemed to be seeing something Emma wasn’t aware of. 

“Perhaps it was time for it to move on, anyways.” Cora suddenly seemed distant, distracted as she spoke. 

“Throw it out. It’s no good like this to me.” Emma felt a pang at her words. Even if the mirror within the frame was shattered, it wasn’t like the glass couldn’t be replaced. 

Their aged employer turned away, sweeping out of the room. 

Emma, Leroy, and Ruby watched her go and shrugged at each other. Another strange customer.

 

They finished two hours later. The contents of the rooms they needed to pack were boxed up and stacked into the back of their moving van. As Emma climbed into the vehicle, Ruby gave her a funny look.

“What?” 

Ruby pointed at the object Emma held onto. The mirror, wrapped in packing paper. Emma shrugged. 

“It’s not like she wants to keep it.” Emma answered. Ruby didn’t say anything. Plenty of customers often got rid of perfectly good furniture or clothing. Emma and Ruby sometimes took some of the stuff they liked from the things customers trashed. The moving company was a good way to get some stuff they needed, like the coffee table at Emma’s or the toaster Ruby owned. Emma once even obtained a bed frame, replacing broken wood and placing her mattresses that once rested on the floor atop it. 

A shattered mirror in need of repair was simply another addition in Emma’s acquirement of free furniture that yet another customer was letting go of. It was no big deal. 

 

Once home, Emma settled the mirror in her room on top of her dresser as a reminder to get the glass replaced, as soon as she could. She took a shower, and then laid down, sore from her day’s work, lifting and packing and moving Cora Mills into some new house at a beachfront property. Cora hadn’t needed them to unpack, mentioning that it would give her something to do and dismissing them once the job was done. 

Emma was fine with that. The old woman seemed to be quite cranky, if not as though she were burdened by sadness. It made Emma feel a little awkward around her. Pictures they packed showed a man, likely the woman’s husband in them with her. Cora seemed to want be alone, and Emma, an expert at being alone, still wasn’t quite good at reaching out to people like her. 

Slowly, Emma fell asleep. She thought she heard soft murmurings. The sounds of someone speaking in her room when she woke up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but as she lay, listening, she heard nothing. Perhaps she was only imagining things, as she had been when she was in the home of one, strange Cora Mills. 


	2. Chapter 2

“How long will we be doing this?” Her teenage son complained not for the third week in a row. 

‘Spring cleaning’. Regina Mills had called it. More like, get rid of a life that had left her scarred and plenty scathed and start over, finally. There were things all over the mansion that were his. Furniture and paperwork, clothing and little bits and pieces left behind that Regina had been too lost within herself to spend time finding and removing from her home. 

Henry was helping her as best he could. Mostly because Regina needed an excuse to keep him at home and out of trouble. Trouble, which is what he was in a lot of lately. 

If she kept Henry busy, then maybe he wouldn’t end up there again. 

Regina tossed an old, ancient-looking cell phone into the box she put out for this. She should have made her ex-husband clean up all of his things, but then, she needed to get him out as quickly as she could. He had only been allowed so much time to remove all of his stuff before the restraining order kept him far from Regina and far from her home and son.

“Hey mom, look at this.” 

Regina stood up from kneeling under the table, where she’d cleared dress shoes and other boxes of stuff her ex-husband had stored in what was once his home office. Henry held open a large, oak cabinet. Regina remembered a time when it held extra jackets and ties for his job. He at least remembered to take all of those. 

A black framed mirror leaned against the back of the cabinet wall. She recognized it immediately. It once hung up in her room. She knew the engravings at the bottom to mean something her mother told her that she couldn’t recall. 

Regina admired the mirror as a young girl. Her mother gave it to her as a birthday gift the year of her engagement. She was happy to hang it up.

She was heartbroken the day-,

Regina frowned at her own reflection within the mirror. The bags under her eyes did the shadows around them no favors. Her hair was lengthening, -she should really cut that soon. Her frown deepened at realizing the clarity of her reflection. The glass framed by shiny black, intertwining branches was solid, no longer shattered. She could have sworn he broke it in a rage only a year after their marriage.

“Maybe he fixed it?” Henry remarked. Regina shook her head, in denial. 

He was much too selfish to do such an altruistic thing, especially for her. 

“If he had, he would have done it right after he broke it, and he would have shown it to me.” Regina told her son dryly. She was sorry her son had to live through him too. He was good when it benefitted himself and it benefitted him to make everyone else think he wasn’t the cruel man he was to Regina. Her son didn’t quite understand that about him yet.

Regina picked up the mirror. She admired the frame. It was deceivingly heavy in look, easily two-feet in length and 18 inches wide. She could easily lift it, the metal oddly light. She remembered once saying something to her mother about it and her mother replying that magic made it so.

“I think I may hang this back up.” It was a family heirloom. A gift from her mother that she treasured, happy to receive it on a day meant to celebrate her life. She knew he broke it because it was something she loved. He liked doing things like that. 

Regina carried the mirror into what was once her childhood bedroom. She no longer slept in the master bedroom. That room was too much of a reminder of too many terrible nights. 

She settled the mirror against the wall in a corner of the room. She would find nails so that she could hang it up later. For now, she needed to return to her son. 

 

Regina tossed and turned in her sleep for the umpteenth time in the years since she expelled him from her life. She woke with a start. 

Her heart hammered in her chest. Her skin was clammy. She refused to close her eyes again, fearing the things she’d remembered in her dreams would come back. 

She focused on the night light plugged into the wall nearest her bed. She’d gotten rid of lamps long ago, remembering the sound of shattering light bulbs and breaking lamps when they slammed against the walls. She feared sleeping in the dark, the nightmares were more frequent then.

Regina sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees. She reoriented herself to the world as she tried to forget the images swimming through her head.

She took deep breathes as she started reciting the names of storybook horses to herself. She loved horses and was allowed riding lessons as a girl. Her obsession extended on to reading stories with horses as main characters or where they played a major part of the main character’s narrative. “Black Beauty, Peaches, Hoshi, Rocinante…” 

It was as she reached “Talat” that Regina swore she could hear music coming from the corner of her room. Right where she left her mirror earlier that day. 

Setting her feet on the floor, Regina frowned, listening. Yes, there was the faint sound of a guitar and singing. She could almost make out the lyrics. 

She stood, making her way towards the mirror. The music grew louder as she neared the corner of her room. There was a clicking and the abrupt stop of the music, as if she were listening to someone stop the needle on a vinyl. Regina frowned. 

She could hear someone speaking to themselves. Then a woman’s voice reached her ears, crooning her song.

Regina smiled to herself, recognizing the song. She listened to the lyrics. 

_ All your life you’ve never seen  _

_ Woman taken by the wind _

She frowned. The music was coming from the mirror. Regina picked it up, bringing it over towards her bed and closer to the light. The music continued. She could hear a second voice singing, slightly off-key, but not badly. 

Regina’s heart hammered, not in fear, but in anticipation. She stared into the depths of the mirror, expecting to see her own reflection. What she got-,

Shattered vines crisscrossed the glass of the mirror. Regina touched the places where they were, expecting to feel broken glass, but finding it solid. The center of the mirror was missing a shard. Just like the night when-,

She dropped the mirror. Breathing hard. 

It was the start of another, yet muffled song that brought her back to the reason why she picked up the mirror in the first place. Carefully, Regina grasped the sides of the mirror from its face-down position on the floor where it had fallen. She turned the mirror upright, bringing it up to face herself. 

The shattered vines were still there. She could make out light in the pieces that weren’t too broken. A figure moved around, the colors blurred and distorted, but Regina knew, she was seeing another person. 

She must still be dreaming. She had to be. 

She set the mirror at the wall beside her bed. She lay down. Perhaps this was one of those ‘dream within a dream’ situations she’d woken up into. If she closed her eyes, she would wake up in another dream, or in her reality. She hoped she would wake up. 

Regina closed her eyes, listening as the chorus broke and that second voice echoed the final lines of  _ Rhiannon _ .

 

The next morning, Regina woke up to the sun filtering through her windows and birds chirping their greetings and complaints to one another. She sat up, stretching. 

She set her feet on the floor, getting ready to climb out of bed when she saw it. The mirror. 

Its contents were clear and reflected her and the room she was in. She frowned at it. Had it been a dream? But then, how did the mirror move to the exact place she moved it to in that dream?

She shook her head at herself. She couldn’t lose it now. Her son needed her. 

Sleepwalking. Regina told herself. She stood, moving out of her room to wake Henry and make breakfast.


	3. Chapter 3

Emma stumbled into her room. She groaned as she flopped onto her bed. 

Leroy got into it with some college guy at the bar. Before Emma understood what was happening, she and Leroy were outside, fighting the guy and his buddy. 

Her cheekbone ached. College guy’s buddy had a mean left hook. At least he missed her eye and Emma knocked him on his ass before he could do further damage.

She stood up and went into her bathroom, cursing Leroy under her breathe the whole way. He owed her, big time. 

She eyed her reflection. Emma knew she was an attractive woman. Her blonde princess curls and blue eyes drew in both men and women easily. 

If her cheekbone didn’t swell too much, she could easily hide the bruise with concealer. She made to wash her face, avoiding her injury and removing her makeup. She would need to ice it. She cursed as she stomped into her kitchen and opened her freezer, searching for something to soothe the swelling. 

Emma sat down on the edge of her bed, groaning in relief as she pressed a bag of frozen broccoli against her face. 

“I’m beginning to think this mirror is haunted.” She heard. 

Emma looked around, suddenly alert. She listened. 

“That or magic.” She heard someone huff.

Emma frowned. She could have sworn that voice, a woman’s low timbre came from the mirror on her dresser. 

Emma stood, stepping closer to her dresser. She leaned towards the mirror. It was as shattered as ever, still missing a shard. She didn’t have time to find a place to get it repaired or repair it herself between two jobs and nights out with Leroy and Ruby.

She picked the mirror up, holding it up to the light. Was that-, her hair was blonde, so why was it Emma could see what looked to be brown hair reflected back to her in what bits and pieces of the mirror that could reflect anything?

“Mirror, mirror on the wall.” Emma dropped the mirror in surprise. There was the woman’s voice again, and it definitely came from the mirror. 

Muffled sound reached her ears. Emma picked up the mirror, turning it up towards herself. She sat down on the edge of her bed again, forgetting about her bruised cheekbone and frozen broccoli. 

“Say that again?” If Emma really was hearing someone speak from the mirror, she didn’t hear the last thing they said, and she needed to be sure that she really was hearing someone else speak.

Silence. Maybe Emma took a harder punch than she thought. Maybe she lay knocked out in the alley near Ruby’s bar and this was some kind of weird post-fight delusion.

“I was wondering if there was someone on the other side of this mirror or if I’m losing my marbles.” Emma heard the rueful tone in the voice that spoke through the mirror. “I got my answer.” 

Emma smiled to herself. Even if this was some kind of delusion, she was liking the voice that came from the mirror. There was something about it. Something that spoke to her. She didn’t quite know what it was yet, but Emma wanted to know.

“Well. If you’re losing them, I guess we both are.” Emma told the mirror. 

No reply.

Then, “Were you listening to music the other night?” 

“Ah. Yes.” Emma had come home, she’d been drinking. She put a vinyl record on. Something she got from one of the homes of the people she moved. The owner didn’t want the player, it was broken. They gave what records they had with it. Emma found that the needle simply needed replacing. A total steal if she didn’t say so herself.

“ _ Rhiannon _ .” Emma heard the voice murmur. Emma smiled to herself. The Fleetwood Mac record was one of her favorites. 

“I’m Emma.” Emma heard herself say after another break of silence. She couldn’t help it, she wanted to hear the voice again. She wanted to keep the conversation going, even if this all turned out to be something unreal. 

“Regina.” Emma heard. 

“So, Regina.” Emma began slowly. She scooted back, settling against the backboard of her bed frame. “Have you decided whether we’re both losing our marbles? Or are we both real people, hearing each other inside of a mirror?”

She heard shuffling around. A sigh.

“I’m not sure.” Then, “What do you think?”

“If I’m awake, and if I’m not hallucinating this after getting into a bar fight tonight, then I will suppose that we’re both real, and we are both really talking to each other.” Emma told her newfound acquaintance. 

“Then I will accept it too.” Emma heard a yawn. 

“Miss Emma. It is quite late, and I must sleep. If this is real, and you happen to be having the same problem and you haven’t been hallucinating and I haven’t been dreaming tomorrow, then I suggest we chat again then?” 

Emma smiled despite the absurdity of the situation. “Sure thing.” 

She heard a murmured “good night.” More shuffling, then Emma supposed the person on the other side of the mirror was sleeping. 

Emma set the mirror beside her bed. She turned off her lamp, laying down, then grimaced as her bruised cheekbone touched her pillow, reminding her of what she’d forgotten during her conversation with the voice in the mirror, Regina. 

She grabbed her frozen broccoli and climbed out of bed, cursing Leroy again the whole way to the freezer. 

 

The next morning, Emma picked up the mirror. She eyed it, frowning. She could make out bits of her own blonde hair reflected back at her. 

Maybe she was hit harder than she thought last night. Maybe it really was a delusion.

Emma decided to try anyways.

“Hello?” She called into the mirror.

She felt silly when no answer came as she waited. Her clock’s alarm went off. She should get ready for work. Gold didn’t like when anyone was late. Emma doubted he would excuse her for being late over a mirror.

 

Regina frowned at the mirror. Its contents were clear again, reflecting her room back at her. When she spoke to the voice the night before, it reflected that shattered image again, the same one from the night when he broke it. 

Regina remembered seeing bits of blonde hair in what she could make out in the mirror, and pale white skin. The voice was a woman’s. 

“Emma?” Regina called into the mirror. Nothing. She felt stupid. Regina set the mirror aside. Maybe there were certain conditions in which it worked?

Her cell rang. Regina picked it up, answering, knowing who called. 

“Kathryn.” She waited. 

“Regina.” Her friend sounded chipper. “You make a decision yet?”

Regina did. 

“I’ll come back to work but Henry remains my priority.” Regina told her once coworker, now soon-to-be boss. 

“Of course. This  _ is _ a family business, after all. Family must come first. I will be happy to accommodate you in whatever ways you need in order to provide for him.” Kathryn came calling more often in the past months, inviting herself over to dinner and taking both Henry and Regina out in an effort to talk her friend into coming back to work. 

It really was the best plan. He’d isolated her. Pushed her and pulled her, discouraged her from working. Made her believe it was Regina’s job to be a stay-at-home Mom and wife. He could provide. 

He wanted her to be dependent on him. Regina was lucky her mother encouraged her to keep money put away and that Regina, despite her initial misgivings, listened. 

Kathryn was chattering on, excited about Regina returning to work. Regina listened as Kathryn turned the conversation over towards work gossip, telling Regina she would need to know what’s what and who’s who before she came into work. 

“I’m sure I will.” Regina replied to Kathryn’s insistence that she would love returning to work. Regina meant it. She’d loved it before. She was sure she would love it again. She was good at campaigning. 

Regina hung up and moved about. She wanted to complete the exorcism of reminders from her home. Something she should have done immediately after his exit from her life. 

Regina opened her medicine cabinet. She grabbed a cup and took her pill for depression and anxiety. Her mother nagged her for months to see someone. Regina hesitated for the longest and even questioned her mother’s insistence. Didn’t her mother once say only crazy people saw therapists? 

Then her mother pulled out her own anti-depressants. 

“I was having a hard time after your father died.” She had told Regina. “I finally got help, and I realize now, the injuries to our heads and hearts mean as much as the ones to our bodies.” 

She still had nightmares, but at least she was getting out of bed and out of the house. She was gradually becoming less twitchy. Some things would never leave her. Regina knew. 

 

As Regina settled down to read before bed that night, she heard them. Moans. Coming from the mirror. She closed her book, marking her place. Regina stood up, approaching the mirror. 

“Hello?” She called.

More moaning. Whoever it was was too lost in whatever or  _ whoever _ they were doing. Regina listened, before recognizing the heavy pants, creaking and moans she could hear coming from the mirror for what they were. 

Clearly, Emma, if she was still the voice on the other side of the mirror, was having a very good night. Regina felt her cheeks reddening. She picked up the mirror, she needed to remove the sounds somehow. She looked around, searching her room for something, anything that would stop what she heard. 

“Come on, baby, come for me.” She heard Emma say. Then the unmistakable breathy moans of another woman reaching orgasm. Regina stuffed the mirror into one of her pillows. She ran it over to her closet and dropped it inside, shutting the door quickly. 

Regina leaned against the door, panting. 

She’d felt the desire in Emma’s voice. Something inside of herself responded to it. 

Regina sat back down in her bed and attempted to return to her book, but found her mind too distracted as she kept wondering about Emma and her nighttime companion.


	4. Chapter 4

Emma didn’t try the mirror again for a few more days. 

When she did, Emma was home after another night out with Leroy and Ruby. Ruby wasn’t working that night. She wanted to enjoy her night off, and receive drinks, rather than make them. 

“Mirror, mirror.” Emma tried. 

Nothing. No response. She sighed, flopping back into bed. She probably imagined it that night. She got up, leaving the mirror on her bed as she stepped over to her record player. She set down a Queen vinyl, and dropped the needle.

She was halfway through singing along with  _ Bohemian Rhapsody _ and dancing around her room when she heard it. A low chuckle. 

Emma put more effort into her own rendition of the song as she went along with the chorus. She heard laughter and knew her friend was back. She hadn’t imagined it at all. 

“You’re voice isn’t terrible, but that isn’t quite your song.” She heard Regina say. Emma smiled to herself. She didn’t know it, but she missed her bodiless companion.

“It’s less about the voice, more about the passion with that song.” Emma replied. She laid down beside the mirror on her bed.

She heard a hum in reply. 

“First Fleetwood, now Queen?” Came from the mirror. “What decade is it over there?”

Emma laughed. 

“It’s actually 2006.” She told Regina. They listened to Freddie Mercury sing for a bit in companionable silence before Emma began to wonder if her friend had disappeared yet again.

“2006?” She heard Regina ask. 

Emma was puzzled by the question.

“Yes, what about over there? What year is it for you?” She was curious. Why did Regina’s tone sound so intrigued and yet, worried? 

“It’s 2016.” 

“So 2012 ends up being no big deal? How disappointing.” Emma replied, her tone playful.

“I’m afraid not. Or, you could totally be speaking to a citizen of society after 2012 destroyed most of the world, I suppose.” Was Regina’s reply. Emma smiled at her wit. 

“I could be. Tell me Regina, is it apocalyptic?” Emma laughed as she asked. 

A pause. 

“I supposed you’ll have to find out.” 

Emma whined. “Aww come on, Regina. No fun.” 

She heard a low chuckle. “Can’t have you knowing too much about the future, can we?”

Emma supposed she was right. 

“So if you’re in the future, and I’m in the past…” Emma stopped herself. It was a lot to think about. 

“I have no idea what it means, dear.” Regina told her. “Though we should both probably keep certain future-altering information from the other?” 

“How do we even know what that is?” Emma wondered aloud.

She heard Regina sigh. 

“I’m not sure myself.”

“Well, I don’t watch sports, so you don’t have to worry about me betting on anything.” Emma joked. 

Regina chuckled. “Nor do I. My son doesn’t either.”

Emma caught onto that detail. 

“You have a son?” 

“I do.” Was the reply. 

“Are you-, are you married?” Emma didn’t know why, but the thought bothered her. The disembodied voice was far more interesting than anyone she met in her walking life. 

“Divorced.” A clipped reply. Something happened there. Emma decided to let that drop. She needed to change the subject.

“I was beginning to think you weren’t real.” She didn’t mean for that to come out. Emma cringed at herself. She needed to change the subject, and the only thing she could think of was a very real and vulnerable fear she’d held all week.

“I would have thought the same if not-,” Regina hesitated. “If I hadn’t heard you the other night with your friend.”

Emma frowned. Her friend? Her-,

It dawned on her who and what Regina meant. Emma squirmed uncomfortably. Regina heard all of that? 

“I umm…” Emma didn’t know what to say.

“It’s perfectly fine, Emma. Maybe remember to put the mirror away before, next time.” She could hear a smile in the tone of voice. Regina wasn’t offended by her activities the other night. That was good. 

“I will. I hope I can expect the same?” She didn’t want to assume anything about Regina’s personal life, but Emma supposed they could both give each other the same courtesies. 

A hum. “Of course.”

Emma yawned. 

“We should probably sleep, if it’s as late for you, as it is for me.” Emma glanced at her clock. 3 am. 

“You’re right.” Regina agreed. “I started working again. Would hate to be sleepy on the job.”

Emma decided to wait another time to ask about what Regina did for a living. 

 

Regina glanced at the mirror as she got up that morning. She saw herself and knew she wouldn’t hear Emma reply if she called out to her.   

She pulled the mirror out of the closet when she heard the muffled singing the night before as she searched for a pair of hanging pajamas in her closet. When she heard Emma singing to Queen she couldn’t help but laugh. The joy she could hear was infectious. 

There was something there though, something in Emma’s tone that called to Regina. A loneliness she felt echoed within herself that was twisted around Emma’s voice and filled up by a kind of strange companionship when talking through the mirror. 

Regina got ready for work. She started the day before, Kathryn going over her contract. Her hours wouldn’t be as long and her salary, not as large until she was ready to work like she once did. Kathryn knew and was understanding of the direction her life went. She hadn’t worked in some years. It took him 3 years after their marriage to break her down into staying at home full time. 

Their marriage broke down after she stopped working as his abuse hit its peak and she reached the point where she couldn’t endure anymore. 

Regina straightened her pencil skirt and double-checked her lipstick. She could do this.

Regina hung up her blazer, shuffling out of her pencil skirt with a relieved sigh. 

The day was long. She received a phone call from Henry’s school again that day. She left work to talk to his principal and vice principal. Henry sat outside of the room. Regina felt like a student again, only she’d never been in that situation, on the receiving end of being talked to by two people in charge of her education while they talked about what to do about her behavior. 

In this case, her son not only ditched class, but gotten into a fight with another student. The other student sat in the hall several seats away from Henry. 

Nobody saw who started it. The other boy’s parents were in the room with Regina. 

A week-long suspension was handed out to both boys. 

Regina didn’t know what to do about Henry. She didn’t know how to speak to him. To figure out what was going on. He shut down whenever she tried. 

She made dinner. It was silent as they ate. 

“May I be excused?” Henry’s plate was finished. He often took a second helping since becoming a teen. Tonight, it seemed he only had room for a single helping.

Regina let him go. She’d already taken his videogames when they came home.

She was reading when she heard Emma calling. 

“Regina?”

Regina closed her book. 

“I’m here.” She replied. She was looking forward to having someone to talk to.

“Hi.” 

“Good evening.” Regina reached out for the mirror beside her bed. It held the shattered reflection. Regina thought she was beginning to understand. It’s depths would clear when it wasn’t working. When it was, like now, she would see the image she recognized from that night. She was starting to associate the shattered image less and less with him, and more and more with the voice she could hear on the other side. 

“So it’s evening there?” Emma asked. 

Regina glanced at the clock. 

“10:45 p.m.” She told her unseen friend. 

“More like night.” Regina heard Emma say. She could see a flash of blue, perhaps an eye? Within a shard of mirror that was intact. 

“Emma.” Regina had to know. “The mirror you have? Is it shattered?” 

“Yeah.” Emma must have been moving around. She sounded a little breathless as she answered. 

“Shattered, with a black metal frame shaped like a tree. Strange engravings at the bottom.” Emma continued on. 

It was the same mirror. 

“How, where did you get it?” Regina asked. 

“Some old lady’s. She was moving, I do some packing and moving sometimes as a side-gig. She saw the broken mirror, told us to throw it out, but I kept it.” Emma told her. 

Regina was quiet, thinking it over. Was it her mother that Emma got the mirror from? Should she press further, and risk Emma figuring out their small connection to one another?

“Regina?”

“Yes, Emma?” 

“Is there something on your mind?” Emma sounded genuine. 

Regina sighed. 

“Quite a lot.” She replied. She didn’t know where to start. The strange situation with Emma? Her day with Henry? Work? 

“Tell me.” Emma urged.

If this was all real, Emma was in another time, probably in another place. What harm could talking to her do? 

“My son, he got into trouble at school again today.” Regina began. She could bring up the mirror another time, perhaps once she had better ideas about it. If she ever did. 

“Oh. I remember those days.” 

Regina could hear what sounded like regret in Emma’s tone. 

“He,” Regina let out a breathed exasperation. “Ditched class, then got into a fight with a classmate while ditching.” 

“I’m guessing this son of yours is a teen?” Emma posited. 

“He is.” 

Silence while Regina gathered her thoughts. Emma was clearly waiting for her to speak.

“I’m not sure what to do.” She admitted. Her voice cracked at the end. It wasn’t something she spoke aloud with ease. 

Emma hummed. 

“He-,” Regina sighed. “Is a good boy. So much has happened for us. For him.”

There was that silence, stretching again. Regina waited. 

“Regina. May I ask something?” She heard the hesitance in Emma’s voice. 

“You may.” Regina agreed.

“When was the last time you and your son did something together?” Emma asked. 

Regina opened her mouth to reply, then closed it. She wasn’t sure. 

She and Henry would go mini-golfing when he was younger. There was a time, when she was married, when she, Henry, and his step-father went together. That was before he put a stop to them going out without him altogether. After that, it was rare for Regina to go out. He was often too tired to do anything, and she learned after going out without him that he could become quite furious and impossible to calm.

“Six years.” Regina closed her eyes as she said the words. A sense of guilt washed over her. 

“Maybe you should do something with him. Take him out. Do an activity you both like.” came Emma’s suggestion. 

It wasn’t a bad idea. If Regina was going to regain a sense of normalcy with her son, then taking back activities she did before her marriage was a good idea too. 

“Thank you. I will try it.” 

 


	5. Chapter 5

“Ha! Hole-in-one!” Henry smiled as the faded purple ball fell into the hole. 

So far, he and Regina were having a good time. He was surprised when she told him to put on his coat, they were going out. He thought a suspension would mean he would be stuck inside all day, doing nothing except chores.

Henry frowned when he saw the place they arrived at. It was a newer mini-golf venue in town. Regina thought about taking him to one of the more familiar places they went to when he was younger, but then, remembered that their favorite included him in her memory. 

Perhaps one day, she could go back there, but not today.

Regina smiled at her son, marking down his accomplishment. So far, he was doing better than she was. 

She took her next turn. This particular hole took her three tries. Henry watched.

“It’s okay Mom. You’ll get one.” He clapped her shoulder, smiling. 

It made her happy, to see him smile. They both didn’t do enough of that in the past years. 

“So why mini-golf?” Henry asked Regina as they were buckling up in her car later. 

“It’s something we could do together.” Regina told him simply. “Are you hungry?”

Henry seemed to be gauging her. Figuring her out as he eyed her, warily. 

“Yeah.” 

 

They were driving down the highway when Henry spoke, “You know, I’m going to be 15 and a half soon, Mom.” 

Regina frowned. She was aware. What was he gearing towards?

“Yes?” She waited for Henry to continue.

“Shouldn’t I be getting driving lessons?” 

Ah. So that was it. 

“You want driving lessons?” Regina glanced at her son. 

Henry shrugged, coolly, but Regina knew better. There was an underlying eagerness in his eyes. 

She weighed her options. He was getting into trouble lately. He was 15. He was suspended. He would be 16. When she was 16, she got a car. Having parents that came from old money bought her that. Henry would probably expect the same, they lived in a house that was the result of that same, old money.

“I’m not sure, Henry.” Regina finally told him. She could feel him deflating beside her. It made her feel uneasy. 

“Is this because I got suspended?” Henry huffed. 

“Henry.” Regina focused on the road. “You got into a fight, ditched class, and this isn’t your first time for either of those. You also got suspended this time for doing both at the same time.” 

She glanced at her son. He was slumped in his seat, arms crossed over his chest. She didn’t want him to close off like this. 

“Henry. Henry, I’m not-,” Regina took a deep breath. She remembered Emma’s words from the other night. They talked another hour more. Emma mentioning her own troubled childhood. “I’m not mad at you. If anything, I just want to know why.”

She saw Henry relaxing. Easing up a little.

He sat up, looking out of the window.

“I’m not sure why.” Henry admitted. 

Regina didn’t say anything. Give him a moment, she told herself.

 

They sat in one of the old mom and pop burgers and ice cream places they used to visit whenever they would go on outings like this. The menus were still the same, though Regina and Henry were far from the same people they were when they once frequented the place. 

Henry picked at his food. Something was clearly bothering him. 

“Is something happening at school that I don’t know about?” Regina didn’t want there to be, but she knew if her son needed her, she would do anything to fix his problems. 

“Nothing like that.” Henry told her. 

Regina felt a little relieved at that answer. She still worried. They continued to eat in awkward silence. Henry digging into his food a little more.

  
  


It was as they were driving home that Henry spoke up, he was quiet for much of the ride, his face turned away from Regina as he watched the world outside of the passenger window. He’d looked away only once to change the radio station, he didn’t seem to be enjoying the ‘popular hits of today’ and switched to oldies.

“I’m not sure why I got into the fight.” Henry finally admitted. Though with the way he said it, the whispering smallness of his voice that squeezed at Regina’s chest, he almost seemed to be saying it to himself.

She didn’t say anything, allowing him a moment to continue, if he needed. 

He did. 

“Nathan was just, kind of there.” Henry continued to speak. “I’m not sure if he was ditching, or late to class. I just know that, when I walked past him, he decided to shoulder-check me. He does that to a lot of guys, joking around. I shouldn’t have gotten mad, but… I don’t know.”

Regina breathed hard through her nose. They were pulling onto their street.

“It just felt kind of good to hit him.” Henry almost sounded afraid as he admitted it. His voice cracked at the end of his statement. 

Regina felt as though her chest were being compressed. She didn’t want this for her son. She didn’t want him to feel good, hitting  _ anyone _ . It scared her, thinking she could raise a son that was anything like him. Anything like Robin. 

She looked over at her son as she parked. He still stared steadily out of the window.

“Henry.” 

He didn’t answer her.

“Henry, look at me.”  

Henry turned to her, he was crying. 

“Oh, Henry.” She leaned across the middle of the car and hugged him. He was still her boy, her good, and kind son. He was struggling to understand things about himself. Perhaps more.

Regina pulled back, holding her son’s shoulders and examining his face as she wiped his tears. 

“What do you think you need?” Regina plunged.

 

That night, Regina sat on her bed, waiting for some sign that Emma was on the other side of the mirror. Hours seemed to pass before she heard noises, faint rustling and as she watched, the mirror slowly took on that shattered look. Cracked vines moved across its surface as it seemed to activate itself. 

“Regina?” 

Something twinged at the sound of that now-familiar voice. She was getting to like having Emma to talk to. 

“Emma. Hello.” Regina could make out some colors and shapes. She almost wished she could see the woman she was speaking to.

“How’d it go?” Emma asked. She’d known Regina was going to take Henry out as they were saying their goodnights. Regina mentioned maybe she would take him out mini-golfing off-hand. 

“It was-,” Regina thought about it. It was revealing, calming, nice to spend time with her son and try to figure out what was going on. It was relieving as they stepped back into her home and Henry told Regina he thought maybe he should try therapy. Regina hugged him then and held on as they both cried. Then they watched a movie and ordered pizza, with plans to find a therapist together later in the week. “-good. Really great. Your suggestion really helped.”

Emma sounded genuinely happy as she replied, “I’m glad.” 

“So mini-golf?” Emma started, awkwardly as they fell into a thoughtful silence.

“Mini-golf, ice cream, movie, pizza.” Regina rattled off. 

“Wow, the kid has it good. If I ever had a parent like you, well.” Regina could almost hear the shrug in Emma’s tone as she spoke. 

“I’m not so sure.” Regina had her regrets. If she’d been a good parent, maybe she wouldn’t have allowed him into their lives. Into her son’s life. She knew that had to be part of the reason Henry was struggling.

“Come on, Regina.” She heard Emma say. “You’re worried and you’re clearly doing all that you can. You’re a good mom.”

Regina sighed. Her voice cracked as she confessed her greatest regret. 

“If I had been a good mom, I wouldn’t have let Robin into our lives.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Robin?” Emma asked. 

Regina was silent for a time. Almost long enough that Emma thought she left. Emma lay in bed, the mirror sitting beside her, propped up against the headboard. 

“He was,” Emma heard the hesitation in Regina’s voice. “My ex-husband.”

Emma waited, listening. 

“I married him, years ago, after convincing myself he was a good man.” Emma could hear the regret in Regina’s voice. She frowned. 

“But then, that was before I learned that he was controlling and that he wouldn’t hesitate to hit me.” 

Emma closed her eyes, breathing hard. She had her fair share of abusive homes growing up in foster care. Anger roiled in her stomach to think about Regina dealing with anything like that.  

“Regina.” Emma sighed, hesitating to say what she thought she should say next. She knew it wasn’t what Regina would want to hear. What she would believe after what she had gone through. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”

Silence. Then, “I can. If I hadn’t married him, my son wouldn’t be struggling, and I wouldn’t have suffered.”

Anger simmered into a deep sadness within Emma. She understood. Regina blamed herself even though she shouldn’t. It was what the abuse taught her, what her abusers made her believe. It took years on the streets and growing up alone to teach Emma that she didn’t deserve any of what her more abusive foster parents did her. 

“You weren’t the one, doing the abuse, Regina.”

Emma heard a sniffle. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, it’s not an easy subject for me.” Regina told her brokenly. “I still have trouble talking about it in therapy.”

Emma hesitated. What should she say here?

She knew what she had always wanted to hear, growing up, alone. 

“I’m here for you.” Emma’s voice was soft. She didn’t even know what Regina looked like. She didn’t know her beyond their interactions through the mirror. Yet, Emma couldn’t help but want to do more for her. 

A small sniffle. A light, ironic chuckle. 

“Thank you.” 

 

Emma woke up the next morning, the mirror still settled beside her against the headboard. She fell asleep while talking to Regina through much of the night. Their conversation turned towards lighter subjects as Emma asked about what movie Regina watched with Henry. Emma laughed when Regina admitted that Henry wanted to watch  _ The Lion King.  _ Then they talked about movies and genres they liked until Emma could hear Regina yawning through the mirror as her eyes drifted shut. 

“Good night, Emma.” Was the last thing she heard as she fell asleep. 

Emma pulled on a pair of tight jeans and heavy boots. Gold told her that if she kept up the work, he would give her some of their runners soon. Then she could make the real money. 

Throwing her tattered black leather jacket on over her tank top, Emma frowned at the worn material of her sleeve. She would be needing a new one, soon. Hopefully once Gold allowed her to chase down some of their bail jumpers, she could buy herself one. 

 

That evening, Emma sat at her favorite bar, wildly dubbed by the wizened owner,  _ Bad Granny’s.  _ The day was full of filling out paperwork for the others that worked at Gold’s. Writing up what they couldn’t be bothered with. Legal paperwork when some of the Bail-bondsmen did something legally dubious. She made and took calls until she felt a headache forming. 

Ruby returned with a newly filled glass of beer, swiping up her empty one. “That kind of day, huh?”

She leaned on the bar. Emma exhaled. “Yeah, that kind of day.”

Emma thought about it. Beyond her conversations with Regina, her week was kind of exhausting and monotonous. “That kind of week, really.” 

Ruby gave her a sympathetic smile. She leaned forward, talking just loud enough for Emma to hear. 

“Well I know something that can help your spirits.” Ruby pulled an envelope from behind the counter and slid it over to Emma. 

“I’m invited to this engagement party. I need a plus one.” Ruby explained as Emma opened the envelope. She pulled out the invitation inside. 

_ Join us to celebrate the engagement of  _

_ Robin Hood and Regina Mills _

_ Saturday, April 10 _ _ th _ _. 7:00 p.m. _

_ @ The Waterfront Hotel _

Emma stared at the invitation. Hard. It couldn’t be. Could it? Regina only told her about Robin just that day. If they had met, Regina would have remembered, wouldn’t she?

Or maybe that was it, maybe they didn’t meet. Maybe Emma never went to the engagement party or they simply didn’t see each other there, at all. Regina also didn’t know what Emma  _ looked _ like, just what she  _ sounded _ like. 

Heart pounding and throat tight, Emma asked Ruby, “Where did you get this invitation?”

Ruby was pouring herself a shot. She downed it. “Group of guys came in celebrating. They were being loud and I was curious. I asked about it, and the soon-to-be-husband, Robin grabs me around the waist, telling me about his engagement to a very beautiful and brilliant woman.” 

Ruby rolled her eyes. “They were all pretty drunk but he kept hitting on me until he slapped down an invitation. Told me he would be happy to have another “lovely woman” at his party.” 

“He sounds-,” Emma frowned. She didn’t know if what she already knew about him was coloring how she felt or if she was justified in what came next. “Like a real sleazeball. Are you sure you want to go?”

Ruby shrugged. “It’s an engagement party. There are bound to be other hot single men and women there.”

Emma looked down at the invitation she still held. What did this all mean?

“You don’t have to come. I can take Leroy, but I doubt he’ll be as good at winging as you.” 

“No-, no…” Emma made up her mind. If this was some kind of weird, fated thing, with the mirror and then this invitation, she wanted to see where it all could go. “I’ll come.”

Ruby’s grin was all teeth. 

“Great. Hopefully, we both pull.”

Emma nodded. She downed the rest of her beer, ignoring the strange pull at the bottom of her stomach. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she knew she had to at least catch a glimpse of the Regina she’d been spending her nights talking to. 


	7. Chapter 7

Regina pressed play on her iPhone. It was terribly quiet in her too large home without Henry around. They quickly found him a therapist that week. Tonight was his first session. He wanted to go without her waiting around for him. 

She would make dinner, then return for him. Dr. Hopper’s small family office wasn’t too far, which was something Regina liked. He also specialized in juvenile therapy. The man she met was soft-spoken. His handshake was light, and he seemed to hold an air of kindness about him. She hoped that would be good enough for her son.

As Regina preheated the oven and prepared seasoned chicken, her thoughts turned from her son, to Emma. David Bowie played in the background, reminding her of a night when she heard Emma attempting to sing  _ White Wedding _ very badly. 

Emma seemed distant for much of that week. She played music most nights. Regina got the distinct feeling that it was because something was bothering her and she didn’t want to talk about it. Her replies were clipped. 

When Regina did ask about it, Emma told her that she was having an exhausting week at work. That was all. Then she asked Regina if she minded if she cut off early, she needed to sleep. 

It hurt Regina a little. Emma told her she was there for her, but she didn’t seem to want the same from Regina. 

She set the timer for the chicken she was baking and checked her watch. Regina needed to pick Henry up now. 

 

Henry was quiet for much of the ride home. Regina didn’t pry, as much as she wanted to know how his session went. 

He seemed contemplative. He sat at the kitchen bar, watching as Regina finished making dinner. Henry pulled out plates and silverware, handing them to his mother to plate their food. They both walked into the dining room. Henry set his food down, then told his mother he would get their drinks. 

He handed Regina a glass of water, giving her a small smile. 

Talk didn’t come as easy as Regina would have liked. They were dancing around the subject Regina really wanted to get to until Henry was the one to broach it. 

“Thank you, for umm, letting me see Dr. Hopper alone.” Henry told her after a few bites of silence. A lull in their conversation.

“It’s all for you, Henry. Was-,” Regina hesitated. “Did it go well?”

Henry nodded. “He was very understanding.”

“We uhh, started with an introduction. Then we talked about some of the stuff that’s been going on.” Henry told her. “Archie, -he told me to call him that-, said it was up to me whether I told you about our sessions or him.”

Regina nodded in agreement with that. Technically since Henry was a minor she could ask Archie what they talked about and he would be obligated to tell her. However, while looking for juvenile therapists, Regina wanted someone who would make sure Henry felt safe enough to talk about whatever he needed, without having to possibly betray his trust. Archie was one of a very few that offered the kind of confidentiality that he did. 

They finished dinner. Henry took their plates. 

Regina moved off to her study. She had some work to do at home that she didn’t finish that day in the office. Henry joined her after he finished cleaning dishes, a book in hand. He finished his schoolwork he had been sent home with during his suspension earlier that day. 

“Mom?” Henry spoke up after a while. 

“Henry?” Regina turned away from her computer to look at her son. He fidgeted with his book. 

“Do you think… could you get those files we have on my birth mom? I umm... Me and Archie got to talking about me being adopted and I thought maybe I could bring the files to one of my sessions?” Henry met her eyes as he asked. 

Regina’s heart seized in her throat. Henry’s birth mother. She remembered the day he went looking, very young, and afraid, attempting to escape his step-father. Regina was distraught, her ten-year-old son was out there, alone on the streets of the city. 

It was a phone call from a woman that she didn’t know that brought her to him. She found him wandering outside of some place called Gold’s. Then called Regina and told her to meet her at a diner nearby. 

Henry didn’t want to talk when she arrived. The woman that called Regina took Regina aside and broke the news to her, herself. Henry, it seemed, went to the last known address of his birth mother. When no one answered, he decided to try her last known workplace. The woman speaking to Regina was called in by Gold to get Regina’s information from and talk to Henry. She was a friend of his birth mother. 

His birth mother died in pursuit of a bail jumper when Henry would have only been 5. 

If Henry thought maybe this was part of why he felt the way he did then Regina could at least help him by finding the information a ten-year-old Henry managed to get a hold of and print when he went looking for his birth mother. 

“I’ll get them for you.” Regina promised. 

 

That evening, Regina sat up in bed, reading. The mirror was settled beside her against her nightstand. It wasn’t as if she were waiting to hear from Emma or anything. She simply wanted to catch up on some reading before she went to sleep. 

Yet, when she heard giggling through the mirror, Regina knew Emma wasn’t alone tonight. Something about that bothered her. 

Regina tried to ignore the clearly drunken giggling and continue to read her book, only she couldn’t. She was listening in to whatever was happening on the other side of the mirror. 

More laughter, then, “Why is this mirror on your bed?”

It was a vaguely familiar voice, though Regina couldn’t figure out how that would be. She frowned at her book. 

Then she heard Emma, “Oh. I was trying to think of a place where I could get it repaired. Let me put it away.” 

Regina could hear shuffling. A whisper, then the closing of a door. 

Regina closed her book and laid down. She’d heard Emma’s soft  _ goodnight _ before she’d put the mirror away. Emma wasn’t coming back to speak tonight. 

 

Emma rubbed her eyes as she woke up. She looked over at Ruby, still asleep beside her. Emma smirked at the image of Ruby. Her hair was a mess and her makeup was smudged. 

They spent the night before drinking after Ruby got an early night off. Then returned to Emma’s. 

Emma climbed out of bed and almost tripped over Ruby’s overnight bag. She pushed it out of the way with a foot and continued her way to the bathroom. 

Ruby stayed the night so that they could spend the day shopping for the engagement party later. Ruby wanted a new dress, and though Emma didn’t care for it, they would be finding her one too. 

Thinking about the engagement party set Emma’s nerves on edge. She could run into Regina tonight. Or Robin. Emma didn’t know what she would do, if she met him, knowing what he was really like. 

Emma eyed her reflection in the mirror. All week, she avoided talking too much to Regina. She didn’t know how to tell her about the engagement party. She played music and was short with Regina whenever they had their nightly chats. It left Emma with an ache, knowing that Regina didn’t know why she was like this. 

As Emma spit out her toothpaste, she hoped that after tonight, she could go back to her normal nightly conversations with Regina. 

 


	8. Chapter 8

“Are you sure this is a good look?” Emma asked Ruby for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening. She smoothed her hands down the pink sheathe she was wearing. 

Ruby rolled her eyes. 

“You look hot. Why are you so nervous?” 

Emma shrugged, taking a deep breathe to calm herself. “I’m not.”

She didn’t sound convincing, Emma knew. Ruby’s disbelieving glance in her direction told Emma she knew too but Ruby didn’t call her out on it.

She was worried about the engagement party. What did Regina look like? What was she like in person? Would she be able to handle herself around Robin? 

“Emma.” Emma snapped out of her thoughts by Ruby calling her. Ruby took much longer to get ready than she did. 

“Think I’ll rock this engagement party?” Ruby swept her hands out. 

“Oh they have no idea what, or who is coming.” Emma joked. Ruby grinned at that. 

Ruby stopped to look contemplative for a moment as she looked over Emma again. “Actually, here.” She turned away to dig into her makeup bag and pulled out some lip gloss. 

Emma let her friend apply the gloss to her lips. Ruby reached out and fluffed Emma’s curls one last time after she finished. 

“Good?” Emma was still a bundle of nerves, but tonight was supposed to be about having a good time, she reminded herself. Less about the strange mirror and occurrences that seemed to be happening since it came into her possession. 

“Good.” Ruby affirmed. 

Emma nodded. “Well, we’ve reached fashionably late. Let’s go.” 

 

The engagement party was being hosted at the indoor/outdoor bar of the Waterfront Hotel. Guests moved about, socializing and drinking. Emma had yet to catch sight of the hosts. She caught snippets of conversation that the bride-to-be didn’t seem too sociable that evening while the groom-to-be was already drunk. It made Emma wonder about Regina and the circumstances surrounding her and Robin’s engagement.

Emma slipped into the bathroom to get away from a particularly annoying conversation. The young man that cornered her into talking introduced himself as Will. While he was decent-looking and had a pleasant accent, he seemed dense. Emma could only listen to him wax on about his job at the docks for so long. He seemed not to notice that Emma was disinterested in their conversation as she pulled out her phone to text Ruby and see where she got off to. 

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Emma was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t notice there was someone in the single toilet bathroom. 

A woman stood at the sink, reapplying her makeup. Her brunette hair was shortened above her shoulders and the dress she wore hugged her figure in a way that Emma couldn’t help but admire. 

“It’s okay. I’m just finishing up.” The woman’s voice was intrinsically familiar to Emma. It was the one she heard all week, the one that comforted her to hear every night. 

Emma stared. She wanted to know what Regina looked like. She did not quite expect the gorgeous woman that stood before her. 

“Umm. It’s fine. I only came in to get away from a boring conversation.” Emma told her host. She reminded herself where she was and that Regina, this Regina didn’t know her. 

Regina’s reflected gaze in the mirror showed Emma a curious smirk. She applied a coat of dark lipstick as Emma tried her best not to gawk. 

“Are you a guest of Robin’s? I don’t believe I’ve ever met you before.” Regina placed the last of her makeup into the small bag place on the edge of the sink. She stepped away and toward the door. 

“Oh no, I’m here with a friend.” Emma didn’t mention the circumstances around how Ruby got an invitation. “I’m Emma.”

“Regina.” 

Regina bit her lip. Emma was still standing at the door, leaning against it as she’d been doing since entering to get away from Will and check on Ruby. She glanced at her phone again, no reply. 

“Oh. Sorry.” Emma let out a small laugh. She was in the way. Regina shook her head.

“It’s okay. I’m not quite ready to return to the party myself, yet.” Regina told her. Emma noticed her hands fidgeting with the bag she held. 

“Any particular reason?” Emma moved away from the door and to the mirror, setting her phone down on the edge where Regina’s makeup bag had been. She preoccupied herself with fixing her hair, though she didn’t need it. Her blonde curls looked as good as they did when Ruby fixed them up earlier that evening. 

Regina watched her, Emma could see from her reflection in the mirror. There was something there, in her eyes. A kind of sadness that Emma didn’t feel belonged in such lovely, brown eyes. 

“I should be enjoying myself,” Regina sighed. “It’s my own party, after all.”

Emma raised an eyebrow at Regina. “But you’re not.”

Regina’s return smile was rueful. “Robin is enjoying himself.”

Emma chuckled at that. “I haven’t met him.”

“Well, you’re not missing too much tonight.” Regina told her. “He’s umm, he’s already drunk.”

Emma pretended to be surprised. She’d heard from one of the guests. 

“Does he normally do that?” She asked, slowly. 

Regina’s shrug was noncommittal. “He’s happy tonight.”

“He’s a good man. He just…” Regina trailed off. “He enjoys celebrating.” 

Emma nodded, accepting her answer. While she knew about what was to come, she didn’t know enough about this Regina or her relationship with her fiancé to say anything about it. Emma realized then, that she was navigating a difficult path if she chose to continue to interact with Regina. 

“Well, it’s your party…” Emma left off the implication. 

Regina chuckled. “I should still at least go out and give the guests a little more attention.” 

Emma shrugged. “Or you could continue to hang out in the bathroom with a total stranger. Who happens to be a guest at that same party.” 

Regina laughed. It was a sound Emma had come to like, but this Regina didn’t know that. 

“That I could.” Regina eyed her, curiously. “Was it that bad?”

Emma checked her appearance again, mostly to give herself something to do besides drink in the sight of Regina. She leaned against the sink. “The guy I was talking to didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t interested at all.” 

“Dense, then.” 

“Really dense.” 

They both shared a small smile. Emma found herself staring again while Regina’s look turned contemplative. 

“You know, we’ve never met. But I can’t help feeling-,” Regina started but was interrupted as someone pushed open the bathroom door. Regina moved as Ruby burst into the bathroom. 

“Finally! I’ve found you.”

Emma frowned at her friend. “Ruby. I texted you.” 

“Yes and I replied and you didn’t tell me where you were.” Ruby noticed that they weren’t alone. Her eyebrows rose in surprise at the presence of Regina. “Really, Emma? Bar bathroom?”

Emma frowned, not understanding until she got what Ruby meant. “Oh, no Ruby. This is Regina. The bride-to-be?”

Emma noticed a subtle shift in Regina’s demeanor. Regina straightened. “You must be Emma’s friend.”

She sounded less friendly towards Ruby than she was to Emma. She seemed much more, -stiff. 

“Ruby.” Ruby shook the hand Regina offered. “I’ve already met your fiancé.”

“Oh?” Regina eyed Ruby. Her lips tightened over a flat smile that didn’t reach her eyes. 

“Yeah. He’s very happy about your engagement.” Ruby offered up in an attempt to be friendly.

Regina seemed to relax at that. 

“Umm, Em. Do you mind if we get out of here?” Ruby turned her attention away from Regina. 

Emma crossed her arms. She frowned at her friend. “Didn’t find anybody to go home with?” 

“Ugh.” Ruby huffed. “There are few decent looking people, but they’re either married, engaged, or otherwise unavailable.”

“The ones who are available aren’t all that appealing.” 

Emma thought of Will. She understood. 

“Yeah. We could always find a bar.” Emma suggested. 

“Let’s do that.”

Emma pulled away from the sink. 

She turned to Regina, smiling. “It was nice meeting you.” 

Regina’s smile still didn’t quite reach her eyes, but it was slightly warmer than the one she’d given Ruby. “It was nice meeting you too, Emma.”

Emma nodded and followed her friend out of the bathroom. 

She glanced at Regina one final time, noticing how Regina crossed her arms over her stomach. Part of Emma wanted to stay and know her better, but she didn’t know just what the consequences of meeting Regina would be. 

She worried about returning to the mirror and what she might learn from the Regina she knew to be in the future.


	9. Chapter 9

Regina sat up, her head jumbled over what she dreamt about. It was her engagement party. Robin, drunk, had embarrassed Regina early into it. Regina afterward, left to the bathroom to get away from the awkward glances sent her way. She hadn’t recognized the feeling of embarrassment then, she suppressed it, made herself believe she was merely uncomfortable being the center of everyone’s attention. 

Then a blonde, her princess curls and blue eyes, still fresh in her mind, was there. She introduced herself as Emma. Was she the same Emma? From her nights speaking into the mirror? 

Regina tried to remember her voice, but the dream, possibly memory kept slipping away. She rubbed hands over her tired face, glancing at her clock. It was early, but she should move around anyway. 

She would talk to Emma later, to try to understand. If they really did meet in the past, was it something that she always knew, deep down? Or was something happening with the mirrors, that was bringing them together? 

She would figure it out later, for now, breakfast. 

 

That evening, Regina decided to play a little music of her own. She didn’t sing along, not like Emma often did, but she hummed at moments, when she was enjoying a particularly good chorus.

“Regina?” She heard Emma call through the mirror. 

Regina smiled. 

“Good evening, Emma.” 

There was a pause. “Evening to you.” 

Emma sounded a little off. Regina frowned. 

“Is everything alright, Emma?” Regina asked. 

Maybe Emma would finally tell her whatever it was that seemed to be bothering her all week. 

“It’s fine.” Emma was clearly still having trouble opening up to Regina. Then, “I just left my phone at a thing last night.”

Regina had a brief flash of memory. A phone in her hand, left in the bathroom by a blonde she’d been speaking to. 

“Would this phone happened to have been left at an engagement party?” Regina drawled. She was beginning to get a feeling she knew why Emma was so hard to talk to lately. 

Silence. 

“I-, yes.” She heard Emma hesitating. “How did you-?”

“I woke up this morning. I dreamt, I think, about meeting you.” Regina’s voice grew smaller as she spoke. She didn’t know why, but something about admitting that tugged at her and sent nerves fluttering through her stomach. 

“Oh.” Emma was silent. It unnerved Regina.

“Oh?” Regina questioned. 

“I, I wondered, if you would remember me.” Emma told her. Regina thought back to her dream that she now knew to be a memory. Emma, in her body-hugging pink dress. Her blonde hair stirring something inside of Regina. Her blue eyes-,

Regina’s breathe hitched. Why was this happening now? If she met Emma before, surely she should have remembered sooner?

“Maybe, maybe I’m only remembering because you just met me in your time?” Regina wondered aloud. 

“I don’t know.” Emma replied. They both grew quiet as they contemplated the implication. That they were connected in Regina’s past and Emma’s present. 

Regina glanced at her calendar. The date was April 11 th . Her engagement party was April 10 th . So that meant the dates lined up for both her, and Emma, just years apart. Regina concentrated, hard. Were there other memories of Emma that she’d simply forgotten?

“Regina?” Regina snapped out of her thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m trying to decide, if meeting you was already part of my past, and I simply forgot about it. Maybe the mirror, and talking to you made me remember. Or maybe, we never met before, and things are happening that were different than before. In that case, am I getting new memories? Is this because of the mirror?” Regina wondered aloud. 

“Those are a lot of what ifs and possibilities that neither of us can really be sure about, because neither of us really know what this mirror is, or why or how.” Emma pointed out. “I’m not even sure where to begin figuring this whole thing out.”

“We could always try the Internet.” Regina told Emma. 

“Yeah. Or even some of those weird antique cult shops strange old women might go to.” Emma sarcastically commented. 

Regina frowned. “Where did you say you got the mirror, exactly?” 

Emma thought back, trying to remember. “Some old lady. Cora. Cora-,”

“Mills?” Regina supplied. She was right. Her mother. It was the same mirror. Which meant Emma packed her mother before her mother vacated her home for Regina and her son to move into a few years after her father died. 

Emma’s silence unnerved Regina this time. 

“Is she, she’s your-,” Emma was hesitating. 

“My mother, yes.”  

 

Emma arrived at Gold’s a little tired. Her chat with Regina went on later into the night than they both meant for it to. The revelation that they met in Regina’s past and Emma obtained the mirror through Regina’s mother left them both attempting to figure out what it all meant. Regina searched online while Emma made suggestions for what to search. In the end, neither of them had answers, and neither did the internet. 

Emma also didn’t quite know what to do about her phone, and Regina didn’t seem to have any ideas, either. She flopped down into her seat at her desk. She could call the bar at the hotel and probably see if Regina of her time, turned her phone in. 

Emma was dialing the number she searched for and found on her work computer when Gold called her from his office. Emma hung up the phone. It would have to wait until she spoke to Gold. 

“Emma.” Emma stood awkwardly inside the door. Gold gestured at the seat on the other side of his desk. “How long have you been working here?” 

Emma took the offered seat. “Six months.”

“Six months.” Gold remarked. “While your paperwork isn’t perfect, I’m glad you stuck around.” 

Emma waited. Was he saying what she hoped?

“I’m not going to have you running after bail jumpers for a bit longer.” Gold told her. “It can get dangerous, and I need to make sure you’re going to stick around. But, I think we can at least get you serving papers.”

Emma watched Gold with anticipation as he dug through some files on his desk and pulled out some envelopes with names and addresses on them. “Mind you, serving papers isn’t always the easiest. Some of the people you’ll be serving to will run.”

Emma nodded. 

“Its best to get them around work and in public places. That way you have other people around who are witnesses if they do anything that may endanger you.” Gold told her. He handed her three envelopes. 

“Get these done by the end of today and we’ll talk about your pay raise when you get back.”

“Thank you, Mr. Gold.” Emma said as she picked up the papers she would be serving. Gold waved his hand at her, dismissing her. 

Emma forgot about her phone until she was gathering up her jacket to head out. She sighed. She would probably just have to buy a new one once she figured out how much more Gold would be paying her, though she suspected it wouldn’t be too much of a raise. 

Emma looked over the addresses on the envelopes she held. She knew where they all were. Worrying would do her no good right now. She had work to do. 

 

Emma laid back on her bed with a happy, slightly buzzed sigh. She called Ruby on her work phone shortly after delivering her papers. Ruby told her to come by the bar and she would call up Leroy since Emma was missing her phone. 

Leroy bought her shots and made a toast. It was nice, thought Emma couldn’t help but feel something was missing. 

“Emma?” Emma sat up, smiling, at the call of her name. 

“Regina, hey.”

“Hey. Did you find your phone?” Emma heard Regina ask.

“No, I uhh, had other things going on today.” Emma told Regina. 

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I got a promotion at work.” Emma’s smile widened at answering Regina’s congratulations. That’s what she was missing. She’d been wanting to tell Regina about her accomplishment all day. 

It was nice having people she could talk to and celebrate her achievements with, however small. 

Neither of them seemed to want to get into the problems with the mirror at the moment. They spoke only a little longer about their days and said their goodnights. Emma, falling asleep with a small smile on her face as Regina congratulated her once more. 

 

Emma woke up later that night to the sounds of a woman’s distress. 

“No.” 

“Leave mmme alone.”

“Please.” 

Her eyes snapped open as she recognized Regina’s voice. Albeit her tone and vocals were fearful. 

“Regina.” Emma called into the dark as she picked up the mirror from beside her bed. “Regina.” 

Whines and the rustling of sheets. Emma realized that she must be hearing Regina having a nightmare. She called louder. “Regina!”

A gasp. Emma listened to the mirror, closely. She wished she could reach out, reach through the mirror somehow and comfort Regina. All she had was words. 

“Hey. Hey, you’re okay.” Emma could hear quiet sobs. She realized Regina must be crying after reliving some terrible memory. It made Emma want to tear apart the one who, she wanted to tear apart  _ Robin. _

Emma continued to murmur soothing words until she heard Regina’s sobs turn to sniffles. 

“Emma?”

“I’m here.” 

“I’m sorry, if I woke you.”

Emma frowned. “No, no Regina. It’s okay,” Emma heaved a sigh. She wished she could do more for Regina. Hold her or something, any bit of comfort she could provide than just speaking through the mirror. 

Emma listened and spoke soothing words as she heard Regina’s quiet sobs and uneven breathing steady out. 

The mirror came into their lives for a reason, Emma determined. It had to be for much more than listening to Regina toss and turn in her sleep some nights and for the both of them to listen to one another’s problems and give each other advice. Regina was in the future, after all, and Emma was in the past. They even met.

Their lives were intersecting.

Emma’s resolve solidified as she returned to sleep. She was going to make sure Regina wouldn’t have anymore nightmares.


	10. Chapter 10

Emma called the hotel bar to no avail. Her phone hadn’t been turned in. Gold gave her an assignment that morning that Emma already completed. During their discussion over a pay raise, he told her he still expected her to continue working at her desk until they found a replacement for her. Emma was fine with that. She took  a phone call that morning from an applicant to her job and Emma wondered just how quickly Gold put the word out for a new hire. 

Staring at the computer screen, Emma contemplated just how she would figure out where her phone was. Every once in a while, her mind would wander towards Regina, and Emma would snap herself back to the present. 

She knew she wanted to help Regina. To make things better for her. Emma just didn’t quite know how. 

Emma sighed as the phone rang. She straightened, preparing to put on her business best as she picked up the phone. 

“Gold’s, how may I help you?” Not for the first time, Emma wished Gold would put something after his name, like ‘Bail bonds’, ‘& Associates’ or something other than just his name. 

“Hello, is there a Miss Swan employed here?” 

Emma pulled the receiver away from her face, staring at it as her heart hammered in her chest. She knew that voice. She’d heard it enough to recognize it anywhere. 

“Umm. Yes, this is her.” Emma answered after realizing she left it quiet for long enough that Regina would think she’d hung up.

“Miss Swan. Did you by chance leave your phone at a certain engagement party over the weekend?” The difference in this Regina’s tone was lighter. The Regina Emma spoke to often at night seemed to carry a weight in her voice. As though the years had worn her down. 

Emma allowed a brief smile to cross her lips. She was relieved. Her phone was with Regina. It was one less expense for her, and she wouldn’t lose her contacts. 

The fact that Regina was the one that found it was such an strange stroke of luck. Or perhaps it was fate.

“I believe I did.” Emma answered. 

“Well. It seems you left it in the bathroom during our brief conversation. How would you like it returned?” 

Emma glanced at the clock. It was almost her break. She bit her lip. Should she?

“Do you, do you happen to have it now?” Emma asked. 

“I do, yes.” Regina replied. 

“I’m going on my lunch break soon. If you could send me an address, I could swing by and pick it up?” 

Emma waited for Regina’s answer with baited breath. She didn’t quite know what she would do if Regina told her that she would prefer to get her phone back to her another way. However, she would respect whatever Regina wanted. 

“I’m currently at work, but if you would like, you may pick it up from my office.”

Emma smiled. 

“I’ll swing by. Send me the address.”

 

Emma arrived at Midas Campaign Management & Co. a little after noon. She was surprised to learn that all this time, Regina Mills worked a simple 10-minute drive from her. 

She was greeted at the front desk by a timid-looking young woman, who looked to be fresh into her college years. 

“I’m meeting with Regina Mills.” Emma told the receptionist, glancing at the name, Aurora, on her nametag. 

“Regina Mills? May I ask your name, and business?” Aurora asked. 

“Emma Swan. Umm, I spoke to her on the phone.” Emma replied. 

Aurora picked up the phone and spoke into it for a moment before nodding. She stood and stepped out from behind the receptionist desk. 

“Please follow me.” 

Emma followed her beyond the desk down a hallway lined by glass windows and heavy doors. The offices within looked busy as people behind glass windows chatted behind desks or held meetings at long tables. 

They stopped after two turns and down the end of a hallway. The plaque beside the door Aurora knocked on read  _ Regina Mills, Political Director & Advisor _ . 

Emma heard the faint response telling them to enter. Aurora held the door open for Emma and the door clicked shut as she left her.

The office inside was rather impressive. The desk Regina sat behind was made of a heavy, dark wood. There was a sofa inside, a coffee table before it. Likely for holding meetings with politicians. Bookshelves lined two walls. A framed map of the city and surrounding areas was on the wall directly behind Regina. 

Regina herself frowned at her computer, as she typed something out. Emma continued to take in details as she waited for Regina to acknowledge her, not wanting to disturb her before she was ready. 

Regina looked up as she finished. 

“Miss Swan.” Regina straightened. She reached into a drawer as she stood. Emma smiled as she saw the lightly scratched and battered phone in Regina’s hand. 

Regina stepped out from behind her desk, holding Emma’s cell out for her. Emma took it, replacing her hand with her own. She squeezed Regina’s palm in a gesture of thanks. 

“You’re a life saver.” Emma told her. 

Regina smirked. “No need to exaggerate.” 

She squeezed Emma’s hand back and let go. Emma found that she already missed the touch. 

Regina wore a grey dress, belted at the waist. She stepped back, crossing her arms as she leaned against her desk. 

“Di-,” Both women began. Regina smiled. 

“You first.” Emma volunteered. 

“I was going to ask if you enjoyed the rest of your evening with your friend?” Regina asked. 

Emma slipped her thumbs through her belt loops. “It was a normal night out. Did the rest of your umm, engagement party go well?”

It still bothered Emma, knowing what she knew. She watched Regina carefully. She saw something flicker across her expression at the mention of the night they met before it was hidden away. 

“It was-,” Regina sighed. “If you and your friend stuck around, you would have seen for yourself.”

Emma became curious at that. “Something happen?”

Regina straightened. She seemed to realize what she’d said, and that it was too much. “I should, really get back to work.” 

Regina was stepping back around her desk. Her reaction only peaked Emma’s interest further. She never thought to ask about events the night of the engagement party to her-, to future Regina. 

“Actually.” Emma didn’t want to leave Regina just yet. There was a set to her jaw, a frown beneath the surface that Emma wanted to get to the bottom of. Emma ducked her head. 

“I was wondering if maybe, you would let me thank you? With lunch?” 

Emma didn’t see the surprise that crossed Regina’s features. 

“It was only a phone return, Miss Swan.” 

Emma looked up then. She held Regina’s gaze. “Yeah, but for me, a new phone is an expense I didn’t really need. I’m also pretty curious as to how you tracked me down.”

Emma  _ was _ curious about that since they talked on the phone at Gold’s. 

At that, Regina turned smug. “I have my resources.” 

“Well, tell me over lunch.” 

Regina seemed to hesitate. She glanced at a fancy-looking watch she wore. 

“Alright Miss Swan. You can also tell me how you managed to get here so quickly after I called.” 

 

Regina glared at her computer screen as she went over the biography of their latest candidate. Kathryn wanted her to get back to her on potential platforms and voter bases they should be pursuing. She was having trouble concentrating as a headache brewed at the back of her skull. 

The knock at her door felt far too loud and as though it were part of the pounding in her head. Kathryn’s volunteer coordinator poked her head in through the door. Regina glared at her, but the other woman’s fear of her had long-vanished over the years. 

“Kathryn would like to know what you would like for me to pick up from lunch.” 

Regina leaned back in her chair. She pressed her hands to the base of her skull. “Not today, Aurora. I have a headache.”

“I can get you something while I’m out. Tylenol? Advil?” Aurora offered. 

Regina thought about the offer. She was beginning to feel exhausted by the pounding. “Tylenol.”

She paused. “And a kale salad.”

After Aurora left, Regina pushed herself away from her desk. She stretched. She’d long abandoned her heels under desk as she worked at her computer. She sat on the sofa in her office that Kathryn managed to hang onto over the years of Regina’s absence from her family company. 

Regina leaned back against the cushions, sighing as she closed her eyes. She was exhausted. It was around time for her lunch break. She could-

Her eyes drifted closed as the exhaustion took over. 

It was a searing pain that woke her up. Regina bent over, holding her head. 

_ Emma smiled at her over a table at the nearby diner. She had a root beer in front of her.  _

_ “Turns out my work is pretty close.” _

_ “And what exactly is it that you do, Miss Swan?” _

_ “Emma.” _

_ “What?” _

_ “Please, call me Emma.”  _

_ “I kind of like ‘Miss Swan’.” _

_ Emma rolled her eyes. Regina focused on her fingers as they tapped at the glass bottle of root beer before her. “I’m a receptionist, but just got promoted. I’m mostly serving papers.” _

_ “How did you track me down?” Emma asked.  _

_ Regina glanced away. “I maybe got one of our volunteers to help me break into your phone. He’s particularly handy with technology.”  _

_ Emma looked both impressed and a little bothered by that information. _

_ “You went through my phone?”  _

_ “Only for long enough to get your name and work contact and see that your wallpaper is a hideous yellow Volkswagen bug.” _

_ “Hey, don’t talk about her like that. She’s a special car.” _

_ Regina felt herself laughing. Emma smiled. _

Regina’s eyes fluttered open. She had lunch with Emma. They had lunch. They spent time together. 

Was this new? Was this something she simply forgot and Emma was making her remember in the past? Regina rubbed her head as the pain subsided. 

She tried to think. Images of Emma smiling, laughing as she and Regina bantered back and forth continued to invade her brain. 

What was Emma doing? Regina closed her eyes.

_ “Are you going to tell me about the rest of the party?” _

_ Regina’s fingers fiddled with her own bottle of Root Beer. She felt herself frowning..  _

_ “One of Robin’s buddies got into a bit of bar fight. Robin got involved. It ended with some damages to the bar.” _

_ “Ah. That would explain it.” .  _

_ “Explain-?” _

_ “Why the bar was so hostile when I called after my phone.” _

None of it made sense. If she simply forgot Emma and was only remembering because Emma was living those memories now-,

Or maybe these weren’t old memories. Maybe these were entirely  _ new _ . Regina didn’t know which she was more uncomfortable with. The fact that she could forget a whole person in her past, or the fact that a person in her past was possibly changing her memories? 

Which would mean Emma was changing her past. 

Regina sat up. She was going to speak to Emma about this tonight.


	11. Chapter 11

Regina waited impatiently beside the mirror. She still had very little idea as to exactly when shattered vines would cross the mirror’s surface. It was getting late as the clock ticked closer to midnight. Maybe Emma wasn’t going to show up tonight. 

She tried distracting herself by reading and working on some leftover ideas for work, but couldn’t bring herself to focus. Her mind kept wandering. She kept wondering, thinking about her situation with the mirror and trying to figure out if her memories were new. 

She tried thinking back on her engagement party and then the days after. Finding Emma’s phone, getting someone who knew a bit about cell phones to get it unlocked. Going through the phone for some way to contact Emma. Regina couldn’t tell if those memories were new or if she always had them. 

She could see a flicker of light beyond the mirror’s surface. Regina watched as shattered vines cried-crossed the mirror’s surface again. She heard faint rustling as Emma moved around. Emma’s distant sigh of relief as what sounded like her flopping onto a piece of furniture. 

“Emma?” Regina’s impatience was growing. She had to know what Emma might know or think. 

“Oh, Regina. Hey.” Emma’s tone indicated surprise. 

“Emma, there’s something I have to ask.” 

She heard faint rustling again. Regina waited until she was sure Emma was settled. 

“Okay.” Emma answered. 

“You met up with me today.” 

“Is that a question or a statement?” Emma’s tone bothered Regina. There was a sharpness to it. 

“I’m getting there.” Regina wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was that she wanted to know from Emma. Her memories felt clear, as though the events she was remembering just happened. For Emma, that would make sense since Regina’s past was turning into Emma’s present. 

“You… why lunch?” It wasn’t quite what she wanted to ask. Regina’s curiosity got the best of her. Emma was clearly attempting to spend more time with her. The last interaction she could think of as she racked her brain for other memories of Emma that maybe she had forgotten was Emma putting her number into Regina’s phone.

That was it. She carried no other memories after that. 

 

Emma hesitated to answer. She knew part of the reason why she asked Regina out to lunch. It was spur-of-the-moment. 

It was also-,

Emma exhaled. 

“We keep crossing paths. It’s strange, but I can’t help but feel that maybe there’s a reason for it.” Emma told her. Her heart started to race as she admitted, “I like spending time with you.”

Emma listened to the stretching silence that followed her admission with an ache in her chest and nerves dragging at her stomach. It wasn’t the entire reason. She wasn’t sure how Regina would take that. Emma also wasn’t ready to admit to wanting to meddle, to change Regina’s past and the Regina of her present’s future.

When Regina spoke again, she sounded small. “But, Emma… what you’re doing, I don’t have any other memories of you. I’m sure I wouldn’t have forgotten just like that.”

Emma held her breathe at Regina’s words. 

“You calling me unforgettable?” Emma joked. She needed to relieve the tension she was feeling as they spoke,

“Miss Swan.” 

They both paused. It was a slip, Emma knew. Present Regina insisted on calling her by surname a few more times in jest and whenever Emma made a rather uncouth comment. 

If future Regina was calling her that, then she remembered the little time they had together clearly. 

 

“Emma. Be serious. What if you being around me in the past has serious consequences?” Regina spent the rest of her afternoon and evening thinking about it. Emma was changing her past, whether that was intentional or not, it could cause Regina serious problems. Something could go wrong. Everything could go wrong.

“I’m sure at this point that I didn’t know you before-,” Regina hesitated.

“Before the mirror?” Emma finished. 

 

“It was only a lunch, Regina. I don’t think we’ll be seeing each other any time soon.” 

“You gave me your number.” Regina reminded her. 

Emma ran fingers through her hair, frustrated. “I only gave it in case she, you, ever needed someone like me to do a job. As a favor.” 

“I’m not expecting a call.” She added. 

“Well, clearly you don’t know me well.” Regina’s tone was clipped. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Emma glared at the mirror, not wishing for the first time that she could see Regina. See her face, her expression, so that she could see what she might be feeling. Try to, at least.

“You’ll find out.” Was Regina’s cryptic reply. 

Emma ground her teeth. This conversation wasn’t going well.

“Regina…” Emma lamented. “I don’t know what exactly is happening. I don’t know why it’s happening. I just know that you came into my life somehow, both here, right now, as we talk through this mirror. I also know, that you are actually here. But it’s not the same. She’s you, but she doesn’t-, she isn’t quite the same. Yet I can’t help but want to be around her. Or you.”

 

An onslaught of emotions bombarded Regina at Emma’s words. She felt confused, Emma was admitting to want to spend time with her, but then admitting that herself, the one of the past wasn’t the same. Regina understood why that was. There was a whole decade of life and experiences that led to who she was now. Emma was probably just as confused as she was. She also felt something far more overwhelming. It warmed her, as it simultaneously filled her with fear. 

“Emma, I-,” Regina’s voice caught in her throat. “We should sleep.” 

“It’s late. I have work tomorrow. We should talk about this when we’ve both had more time to think.” Regina told Emma. 

“Y-yes. We should. Sleep. We can talk tomorrow?” Emma sounded unsure.

“I think we may need a little more time than that.” Regina answered. She needed more time. To process. To maybe call her mother and figure out what was going on. Yes, she would call her mother about the mirror.

She had to know something. 

“Okay. Well. Goodnight.” There was a tinge of sadness to Emma’s voice.

“Goodnight, Emma.”

 

Regina leaned back in her office chair, listening to the dial tone as she waited for her mother to answer her call. It was closer to lunch. After her father’s death, her mother took to new habits of sleeping in and a late breakfast on the deck of her beach house, while watching the ocean. Regina timed her call so that she would catch her mother at the end of her daily breakfast ritual.

“Regina! What has you calling mother this morning?” 

“Well hello, Zelena.” Regina rolled her eyes at the British accented voice of her half-sister.

“Didn’t know you were in the states. Where’s mother?” Regina didn’t dislike her sister. She could sometimes be enjoyable company. Other times, she went out of her way to antagonize Regina. 

“She’s making mimosas.” The delight in Zelena’s voice could not be missed. “I do love a good, morning mimosa.”

Regina didn’t even question the timing or choice of her mother’s post-breakfast beverages. She visited a few times over the years and her mother had become increasingly eccentric, moreso than in her youth. Whether it was morning mimosas, trips overseas, or asking Regina to accompany her to odd curiosity and antique shops in order to buy and sell oddities she had lying around and seemed to enjoy acquiring.

“Zelena. I really need to speak to her. Please give her the phone.” Regina requested. 

“Oh, come on, Regina. We haven’t caught up in a while. Let’s chat a while.” Zelena pouted.

“It’s really important that I speak to mother, Z.” Regina insisted. 

“Fine.” Zelena grumbled.

She waited, listening as she heard shuffling around. Then Zelena as she called their mother. 

“Regina?” Her mother answered.

“Mother. Good morning.” 

“Zelena made it sound urgent. What do you need?” Her mother got to the point. It was always like that between them, even as Regina was growing up.

Regina hesitated. She’d spent her morning unable to focus on work as she tried to think of how she might explain or ask about the mirror without sounding, well, out of her mind.

“Mother, do you remember a mirror with a black metal frame? One with tree branches along the sides and a tree trunk at its bottom?” Regina inquired.

“Oh. Yes...” 

Regina frowned. Her mother’s reply was a murmur. It wasn’t promising. 

“Mother. You once told me it was a family heirloom. Is there any reason why?” Regina prodded. 

The silence that came from down the line grew longer and longer. Until Regina was becoming concerned. 

“Mother?”

“I told you the story, Regina.” Her mother was unhelpful. Regina frowned as she stood, pacing her office. 

“I must have been young, I don’t quite remember it.” Regina wasn’t being dishonest. She knew it was an heirloom passed down several generations with deep meaning for the first of them to pass it down. She didn’t remember the story behind why.

“Give me a moment.” Her mother told her. Regina heard the phone being put down.

Regina waited, gnawing her lip and leaning against her desk. She caught the sounds of the phone being picked up and the shuffling of pages through the receiver. 

“I’m only reading this to you because you asked.” Her mother told her. “I’m also giving you an abbreviated version, because I would really like to get back to my mimosas before your sister drinks them up.”

Regina heard Zelena’s protest in the background.

“Shh. I’m on the phone.” Her mother admonished her sister. 

“The mirror is passed down from mother to daughter. The first of us to own it was also named Cora, -like myself. The short of it is, she was arranged to marry a man she didn’t want to marry. She searched for ways out of it, even going as far as running away for a time. While she was running she found the mirror. Well. Acquired it. From a man who sold nothing but mirrors.”

Regina listened intently. So far there wasn’t too much that might be a clue into what was happening to her. 

“She thought it was cursed at first. The mirror spoke to her. Then she began speaking back every night. She wrote in her journals afterwards about strange occurrences. Headaches, and that she kept thinking about a young man that worked at her father’s business. One she’d only seen, but was sure she’d never really talked to.”

Nights. Speaking to a bodiless voice, and headaches. Regina was having those. If the first Cora found (or stole, as her mother hinted) the mirror and it was doing the same-,

“She continued to travel until an urgent letter brought her home, her family pleaded her return. The man she was arranged to marry was dead. Murdered by the young man that worked for her father, only he wasn’t so young anymore.”

Regina frowned at that. What did that mean?

“She recognized him as the voice from the mirror.”

Regina broke into a fit of coughs. She had been about to draw in a gasp, but then tried to suppress it so her mother wouldn’t hear her. 

“Sorry.” Regina’s voice was rough. 

“What happened to him? To her?” She asked. 

“He was hanged. She came to America, bringing the mirror with her.” Her mother told her simply. 

Regina was rattled. If the tale had any truth to it, then her ancestor, the first Cora, spoke to someone through the mirror. Someone she only knew in passing. That someone used what they learned about her to murder her potential, -though unwanted-, husband.  

Regina frowned. Some details were missing, her mother told her she would keep it short but-,

“Regina? Regina!” 

Regina snapped out of her thoughts. 

“Sorry, Mother.” She rubbed fingers across her forehead, straightening. 

“Is that all you needed?” Her mother asked. She sounded far too eager to get off the phone for just mimosas. 

“Yes. I-, thank you, Mother.” Regina knew she would be remiss if she didn’t at least say that.

“Then I’m going to return to brunch with your sister. Maybe come by sometime when you’re free with Henry.” It wasn’t a request. 

“We will, Mother. Goodbye.” Regina hung up after her mother’s reply. How did she ever like this story as a child? Or the mirror? Then again, the story her mother told her as a child had more detail, it probably sounded much more glorious to her then. 

She sat in her office chair, running fingers through her ever-lengthening hair. The mirror changed another’s life before. Who wasn’t to say it wasn’t changing Regina’s now? There was also the matter of her mother deliberately leaving details out, but why? 

Regina thought of Emma. Emma didn’t seem the type to murder anyone. Regina wouldn’t put it past Emma to change her future, however, knowing what she knew.

That could be dangerous. For the both of them.


	12. Chapter 12

“Mom?” 

“Henry?” Regina turned to her son after she put the last of their lunch plates on the dish rack to dry. 

Henry was doing better since starting therapy. His grades improved, Henry no longer skipping assignments. Hopefully the lack of phone calls to Regina from his principal meant he was staying out of trouble.

His hands were jammed into his zip-up hoody’s pockets. “I was just wondering if you found that file yet? The one about my birth mother?”

Oh. Right. With everything going on, between work, Henry, Emma, the mirror, Regina didn’t quite have as much time as she would like to find the file. 

Regina sighed. Henry was doing better. Regina needed to do better for him, too.

“I’m sorry, Henry.” There would be no point making any excuses. Telling him she was too busy lately would only hurt him. She needed to make him her priority. “I’ll look for it.”

Regina dried her hands off on a dish towel. “It’s the weekend, so I can do that right now.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks, Mom.” Henry seemed surprised by her determination. 

He hesitated. “I also wanted to ask, is it okay if I go to a movie?” 

Regina eyed her son. He squirmed under her scrutiny. 

“With who?” 

“Peter. Michael. John.” Regina recognized the names as ones she’s not particularly fond of. A group of boys Henry sometimes got into trouble with. 

She wanted to trust him. She wanted to believe that he could be trusted to keep himself out of trouble. “Okay.”

Henry’s eyebrows rose. He hadn’t expected her to say yes. “Okay.”

“Just, send me a message when you get there. Let me know you’re okay.” Regina told him. 

Henry surprised her by hugging her. He was taller than her, able to wrap his arms around her easily. Regina squeezed him back. 

“Come right back after the movie?” She looked up at him as Henry pulled away.

“I can do that.” Henry agreed. 

 

Emma really didn’t think things through. 

Her first message from Regina was innocent enough. Regina sent her a small,  _ thank you for lunch.   _

Emma replied with a simple,  _ thank you for returning my phone. _

From there, Emma wasn’t quite sure how they got here.

Here, was the bantering she often experienced from the Regina of the future at night. It was the snarky commentary. The sarcastic replies whenever Emma said something particularly silly. 

It also made Emma feel a little guilty. Regina still wasn’t responding to her calls through the mirror for several days. Emma supposed that meant Regina hadn’t made up her mind about the mirror, or what was happening yet. Emma knew what she wanted. She wasn’t going to just disappear. Not yet. 

She stopped calling to Regina. Regina asked for time, Emma would give it to her. 

_ Any chance I can use you? _ Was the latest of Regina’s messages. 

_ You can u- _ , Emma hit the backspace. That was too borderline flirting. She didn’t want Regina quite like that, did she? Some of her banter with Regina the night before was causing her to question herself.

_ What do you need? _ Emma typed instead. 

_ You work for a moving company, right? I kind of need some help moving some boxes from my attic.  _ Regina told her. 

Emma thought the message over. She had told Regina about her side job off-hand. If Regina really wanted her help, Emma didn’t mind. It was also a good excuse to see her.

She thought of the Regina she spoke to in the future. Should she even risk seeing Regina again? There were a few times Emma almost slipped. She had a few close calls where she let slip details about Regina that she wasn’t supposed to know yet. She scrambled to cover herself.

Emma thought of the laugh she elicited from this Regina. Of a smile pulled over deep red lips and amusement sparkling in her brown eyes. She was compelled to see her. She wanted to see Regina smile like that again.

She wanted to maybe, be the one to make her laugh, as much as she could.

_ I’ll help. _ Emma texted her reply. 

_Great._ Regina must have been waiting, her response was instantaneous. _I’ll_ _send the address._

Emma bit her lip. She hoped she wouldn’t regret this. 

 

Regina shuffled through a box she pulled from a coat closet on the verge of giving up. She already checked three different hall closets, her office, multiple desks, her bedroom closet, and countless boxes. She couldn’t seem to find the file on Henry’s birth mother. 

Henry had been gone an hour, sent off with $20 for the movie and a snack. Regina hoped to find the file by the time he got back, but that wasn’t looking like a reality, at least not that day.

Her mind would wander to Emma as she looked. There was an ache building in her chest every time she thought of her that made Regina try to shut the thoughts out immediately. She couldn’t miss Emma. Not right now. Not when she was still confused about their situation with the mirror. About them. 

The front door slamming startled her. Regina gave up on her box. She hoped that was Henry and not some unknown intruder. 

Standing, she dusted herself off and left the box beside the coat closet she pulled it from. Regina made her way to the foyer to ensure it was indeed, Henry returning from his outing to the movies. If it was, then he was two hours earlier than expected.

Henry was settled in the living room when Regina found him. His lanky form draped over one of their armchairs as he flipped through tv channels. 

He kept tugging at his hood on one side, using it as though he were trying to cover one side of his sullen face. 

“Henry?” 

Henry grunted. Great. They were back to this. Regina took a seat on the sofa. She watched as he settled on  _ The Terminator _ . He tossed the remote unceremoniously toward the coffee table. It landed on the floor by its wooden feet. 

“Did something happen?” Regina asked, reaching down to pick up the remote and mute the tv as the next commercial break came on. There were only so many auto insurance ads she could handle.

Henry crossed his arms. He glared away from Regina, at the wall. Keeping the same half of his face that he had been trying to cover with his hoody away from her, she noted. 

“S’dumb.” He mumbled. 

Regina frowned. “Henry. It’s okay. I am not going to think it’s dumb.”

Henry swallowed. He frowned, looking down and tugging at his hood on that one side again. He fidgeted with the zipper on his hoody.

“Peter started going on about Wendy. Michael and John’s sister? Anyways, he was getting really gross about it. They weren’t liking it and I kept telling him to shut it but he didn’t. Then he said something nasty about her, so I shoved him. Told him not to start anything with the Darlings.”

Henry got quiet. 

“What happened next, Henry?” Regina prodded. 

“He said something about me and Wendy.” Henry’s voice grew smaller as he said it. “The brothers didn’t know anything about it, but Wendy gave me her number the last time I hung out at their house.” 

“Oh.” That was a ton of bricks Regina wasn’t sure she was ready for. Girls. Of course Henry was seeing, talking to girls. He was 15. 

“So the Darling brothers found out you’re talking to their sister?” Regina needed the rest of the details. Henry momentarily let his guard slip. Regina saw the bruise blooming along his jaw that he kept trying to hide from her. 

“I punched Peter. I turned around to apologize to Michael and John, only to get socked in the jaw.” Henry told her. “Security kicked us all out.”

Regina nodded. 

“Did you get the chance to talk to Michael and John after?”

“No. They walked off. I was too mad at Peter to talk to him, so we all just left.” 

“Do you plan to talk to any of them about what happened?”

Henry deflated. “If I want to keep seeing Wendy, I’m going to have to.”

“Give them a day to cool off.” Regina advised. She would have to address the topic of Wendy later. 

Henry grunted his agreement.

Regina stood. She turned off the TV with the remote. “Well. Let’s get you something for that bruise.” 

Henry stopped trying to hide his jaw and looked at her with the full attention of a caught animal. 

“I’m your mother, Henry. I know when you’re a little too fidgety and trying to hide your face from me.” 


	13. Chapter 13

Emma almost laughed once Regina sent her address. Of course. It had to be that house. It could only be that house. 

Cora Mills  _ was _ Regina’s mother, after all. Rather than sell the house, it seemed Cora Mills moved her daughter into her too-large home. Regina Mills, living in the very house that brought her the mirror. 

“Are you going to just stand there staring, or are you going to come in?” Regina called to Emma from the front door. 

“Sorry.” Emma grinned sheepishly. “I’ve just-,”

She decided to go with some truth. “I moved someone out of this house not too long ago.” 

Regina eyed her curiously. “Let me guess, you moved my mother, Cora?”

“That would be the one.” 

Regina led the way inside. Emma couldn’t help but stare at Regina’s outfit. She wore jeans and a t-shirt with what looked like a campaign slogan on it. It wasn’t something Emma expected to see on her, though Emma suspected Regina was dressed for their planned activities. 

As Emma’s eyes tracked down the back of jeans and the way they hugged Regina’s hips down to her sneakers, she realized that her feelings towards Regina might not be just friendly. Emma looked up and away. She couldn’t allow herself that. 

“Look mom! Look what I made!” A small figure hurtled around the corner, holding a paper plane. A little boy came to a stop at the sight of Emma, he stepped closer to his mother. 

Emma stared down at the mop of brown hair and green eyes as they stared back. This was Henry. Henry at 5 years old. 

Something itched at Emma. There was a familiarity about the shape to young Henry’s face. She shook it off as she thought she recognized bits of Regina in his small face. 

“Hi.” Emma smiled as friendly as she could. She kneeled. “I’m Emma. A friend of you mom’s.”

She looked up at Regina as she spoke to make sure this was okay. Regina smiled at her. She nodded down to Henry who was watching her, looking to her for guidance on what to do. 

“She’s okay Henry.”

“Hey, I’m more than okay!” Emma joked. 

Henry, shy, approached her. He held his hand out. “I’m Henry.”

Emma took his hand. “I’m glad to meet you, Henry.” 

Henry bounced on his toes. “Do you know how to make paper planes?”

Emma glanced at his mother. Regina was watching her curiously. 

“I know a few ways.” 

With that, Henry held onto her hand and was dragging Emma up and away before she could protest. 

“I have paper in here, come on!”

 

Regina rubbed the back of her head again. It felt like a headache not unlike the one she had the other day. Which could only mean that Emma was-,

_ “Henry, I’m going to need Emma back soon. She’s here to help me.” _

_ “Aww. Okay Mom. You can have her back for…. One hour!” _

_ “Henry, I’m going to need her help for maybe the rest of the day.” _

_ “Aww, really?” _

_ “Really.”  _

_ “Can I have her back after that?” _

_ Mirth filled her at Emma’s responding bemusement.  _

_ “Maybe. We’ll have to see how tired she is.”  _

_ “Okay.” _

_ Henry stood up. He looked at Emma shyly, then hurried up and hugged her, before letting go and getting back to the pile of paper airplanes he was playing with. “Have fun with Mom, Emma.” _

_ Emma watched Henry go back to his paper planes. “He’s a cute kid.” _

_ “He is.”  _

_ Emma followed as Regina led the way through her home.  _

_ “Is his father still around?” Emma asked. _

_ Regina stopped in her tracks.  _

_ “Uh, sorry. I don’t mean to pry.” Emma rushed. _

_ “No, it’s alright. I wouldn’t know. Henry’s adopted.” _

 

“You okay, mom?” Henry called to her from the attic. It was the last place in the house to look for the files on his birth mother. He peeked down at her from the opening, eyes full of concern. 

“Fine, Henry. Just a small headache.” Regina gave him her best reassuring smile. 

“If you’re sure…” 

“I’m okay, Henry.” She reassured him again.

He nodded. “Come on up, Mom. It’s a bit dusty.”

Regina sighed as she gripped the railing on the pull-down steps to the attic. 

 

“It’s a bit dusty.” Emma called down to Regina. She understood pretty quickly why Regina needed her help with the attic once Regina showed her where it was. Regina couldn’t reach the notch in the ceiling that would allow her to pull down the steps to access it. 

Emma could reach it with a stretch of her slightly longer arms and mild height advantage. Once she pulled the steps down and made sure they were sturdy, she climbed up and looked into the confines of the space. 

Boxes and assorted small furniture filled the attic. Much of it looked forgotten, cobwebs were spread between chair legs turned up toward the sloping roof. Emma hoped there wouldn’t be too many spiders.

“Anything in particular you looking to get rid of?” Emma asked as she heard the steps creak.

“They’ll be coming around to take up larger furniture soon for anyone looking to dump anything, so I was thinking,” Regina gestured at the chairs, frames, and vases in sight. 

Emma huffed. At least she didn’t see anything that looked  _ too _ heavy. 

“Well. Let’s get started.” 

 

They were an hour into the work, Emma dusted off items and carried them over to the opening, then handed them down to Regina. Regina set them on the landing close to the next set of stairs they would have to carry them down. 

They worked quietly for the most part. Both were lost in thought. Emma kept reeling as she thought back to Henry and the fact that he was adopted. She wasn’t expecting that. She was trying to sort out her feelings as she worked, parts of her bursting to talk to Regina about it. 

They were making pretty good progress. So far, nothing was very heavy, which made the job easier and the ability to distract herself harder. 

“This house.” Emma called to Regina as she carried over the last of the abandoned chairs. “Why is it so, so huge?”

She heard Regina’s quiet laugh from below her as she took the chair from her. 

“My father came from money. My mother, did not.” Regina explained. “My mother always wanted to live in a big house, after growing up in small ones all her life. My father only ever wanted to try to make her happy.”

“I guess I can understand that, in a way.” 

Emma picked up a vase. She heard something clink against its side as she moved it. She glanced down to make sure she didn’t somehow damage the vase as she moved it. 

Something glinted on top of the box she pulled the vase off of. Emma set the vase down. Curious, she reached out, and her hand caught on-, 

 

“Ow!” 

“Careful, Henry!” He had dropped something made of glass in the attic. Regina examined Henry’s hand, the cut wasn’t deep and he wasn’t bleeding, but she still didn’t trust the dustiness of the attic. 

“I’m okay, Mom.” Henry pulled his hand away. “Nothing a bit of soap and water won’t take care of.” 

Regina nodded, turning away so that her son wouldn’t notice she’d been a little hurt by his pulling away. She found what was dropped. The broken pieces of a mason jar. She wasn’t sure how it got there, probably something left behind by Robin. 

“Would you mind grabbing a broom and dust pan, while you go clean your hand?” Regina requested, turning back to her son. 

“Yeah, I can do that.” Henry nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

He left as Regina returned her attention to the box she was looking through before Henry’s little accident.

Her fingers drifted over Henry’s old school records, art projects, and even an assortment of paper airplanes. She pulled out papers one-by-one, shuffling through them, and examining their contents carefully, in case if what she was looking for just kept passing right under her nose. 

The headache at the back of her skull wasn’t subsiding. Every now and then she would get a flash of an image, and a snippet of conversation. 

She would speak to Emma later. This interference with her life was getting to be too much. 

Henry returned with the broom and dust pan. He got to work cleaning up glass shards. 

There was still two more boxes to go through. Regina frowned at them, then glanced at her watch. It was closing in on dinner time. 

“Help me carry these last two boxes down for later, and we’ll go out for something unhealthy.”

Henry nearly dropped the broom. “You mean it?”

“I’ll even let you pick.” Regina smiled at him. Henry grinned back and quickly returned to finishing his task. 

 

They were finished some hours later. Emma dusted off her hands after dropping the last set of frames at the edge of Regina’s lawn for pick up. 

“Who are you?”

Emma turned towards the voice. She saw the man driving up and parking his car in front of Regina’s garage. He could only be the one person that Emma was not ready to interact with.

Emma eyed his blonde hair and beard and supposed he must be decent-looking enough for Regina to agree to marry him. She knew him to be Robin by his familiarity, walking across Regina’s lawn as if he owned the place. 

“Emma. I’m a friend of Regina’s.” Emma didn’t elaborate beyond that. She walked toward the house. 

“Well, Emma, I thought I knew all of Regina’s friends. I haven’t met  _ you _ yet.” He accused. There was something underlying Robin’s tone. A hostility that set Emma on edge. 

“We just became friends.” Emma told him simply. 

She opened the door and entered the house, Robin on her heels. 

“Emma-, oh. Robin. You didn’t call or text, I wasn’t sure you would be over.” Regina was exiting the kitchen as the two of them entered. Henry close on her heels. Henry held onto the seam of his mother’s jeans as he hid behind her. He stared at Robin. Emma recognized the mistrust in his eyes.

Robin’s smile was a little too wide. He held his arms out to Regina. 

“I thought I would surprise you.”

Regina glanced over at Emma. “Oh, well…”

They were making plans. Regina wanted to thank Emma for her help by making dinner before Robin’s appearance. It seemed they would have to reschedule. 

Robin wrapped Regina up in his arms, his grip was too tight, his fingers digging into her sides. The kiss he pressed to Regina’s lips caught her off-guard, her eyes widening and hands hurrying to catch a grip on Robin’s shoulders. 

Emma recognized the showiness for what it was. To any other, it looked comical in its awkwardness, but Emma was discomforted by the sight of Robin’s possessiveness. 

Regina cleared her throat as Robin pulled away. She ran a hand through her hair, holding her stomach as she glanced at Emma and away. Robin’s arm remained around her waist as she stood in beside her. 

“Ah, well.” Emma began. 

“Emma-,” Regina started.

They both grimaced at each other. 

“I should go.” Emma told her pointedly. 

Regina nodded. She looked worried. 

Emma glanced down at Henry. He stood away from his mother, throwing surreptitious glances at Robin every once a while. Emma gave Henry a reassuring smile. “I hope we see each other again soon, Henry.”

His expression turned sad. “Come home soon.”

Emma knew it was one of those things kids just say. Hearing it, nonetheless from Henry after a day spent with him and his mother made something thick and heavy seize in her throat. 

She turned away and to the door. 

“Emma, wait.”

Regina held out a small container. “I was going to bring these out after dinner, but…”

Emma glanced back at Robin. His expression was blank, but his hands balled into and out of fists. She smiled sweetly as she accepted the container of what looked to be turnovers from Regina. 

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for helping me.”

They both shared a secret smile at their growing inside joke. 

“Okay, well umm, see you.” Emma didn’t tell Regina she would text or call later. She got the gut feeling that it was best if she didn’t. 

As Emma stepped out of the front door, she slipped the hand not holding the container into her jacket pocket. Her fingertips brushed over the shard of mirror-backed glass she found in the attic earlier. She suspected it would fit right into the missing space within the mirror waiting for her in her room.


	14. Chapter 14

Regina paced her room as she waited for the tell-tale sign that Emma would be available to speak on the other side of the mirror. The rest of her evening with Henry went well. They ate at a place that served tacos Henry said he discovered with his friends. Which made Regina happy for him to have shared that with her. 

Her head continued to ache, flashes of images jumping into her mind throughout their meal, but Regina ignored that, focusing on Henry instead. 

Now, however, it was night and she couldn’t ignore the new memories any longer. Emma, making paper planes with her son. Emma, in the attic helping her clean. Emma, and a feeling of longing that didn’t belong there as Robin wrapped himself around Regina.

Then darker memories came. Darker memories full of her own fear and a man’s possessive jealousy and Regina nearly crumpled to the floor with the new memories that were solidifying in her own mind.

As the shattered vines made their way across the surface of the mirror, Regina halted and seized the edges. She gazed into its depths.

“Emma!” She called. 

“Regina.” The voice on the other side sounded both mildly surprised and relieved.

 

Emma did not expect to hear from Regina that night. She’d been approaching the mirror, the missing shard in her hand when she heard her name called out. She held the shard of mirror out, examine the shape of it against the empty space in the mirror and knew it would fit. 

She hoped she might get to see Regina once she replaced the missing shard somehow. 

“Emma. We need to talk.” 

Emma’s heart stopped at those words. That was never good.

“About?” Emma fingered the missing piece. Replacing the shard could also just be that, the replacement of a broken piece among other broken pieces; leaving the mirror whole, but still shattered.

“You meddling in my past.” 

Emma sighed. “I thought we talked about this.”

“No, Emma, we didn’t. I told you I needed time to think about this. To think about what was happening. I’d hoped in the meantime you would wait.” Regina’s voice was hard, unyielding as she read off Emma’s offenses. 

Emma stepped away from the mirror. “I tried, Regina!”

“Did you?” Was the dubious reply. 

Emma crossed her arms, hugging herself as she turned away.

“At first, when you messaged me, I tried to keep the messages short, polite and make it so that I didn’t leave room for conversation.” Emma started. 

“But then, you would banter back, picking apart my lack of communication. I couldn’t leave well enough alone because I wanted to show that I could give as good as I got.” It wasn’t an excuse. She needed Regina to understand. What, she wasn’t sure yet.

“You were right. I didn’t know you well when I said I didn’t think you would contact me again. Once you did,” Emma held out the mirror shard, turning back to the mirror again. “I wanted to keep the conversation going. I didn’t think about where it could lead.”

Emma was honest. She was too preoccupied with enjoying their banter to think about the consequences. Too busy hoping she was making Regina laugh. 

She was too busy being selfish.

 

Regina shook as she listened to Emma’s words. She dug her fingertips into her palms. She was angry at Emma for being selfish. She was afraid for herself and her past. 

Above all else, she was overwhelmed by the feeling settled in the pit of her stomach because despite all of it, she had come to want Emma to be part of her life. Emma somehow worked her way in and settled herself within the empty places of Regina’s shattered person. 

“Emma.” Regina took a deep breath. “We can’t continue to risk this. I’m putting an end to it.”

She felt herself shattering as she spoke. Regina realized now that all this time she was missing something and someone in the bleak life she was leading.

She still couldn’t risk herself, her past or her present on the off-chance that any of this could possibly work out. She still had Henry. She was picking herself back up again. 

“Regina-,”

“No, Emma. Please.” Regina’s voice broke as she began to cry. A flash of memory came to her, of an angry raised voice and her own weakened one apologizing unnecessarily. “I need you to stop this. For me.”

 

Emma was in turmoil. 

As she heard Regina’s voice break she also realized what she’d been ignoring; She  _ was  _ being selfish. Her desire to see Regina, to want to know her, to want to make her smile was more about Emma’s own gratification than Regina’s.

Now Regina, a Regina of a future to come that was seeing the results of her actions was asking her to stop seeing her. 

“Okay, yes. Regina.” Emma’s hand shook as she replaced the piece of shattered mirror. It slotted into the empty space easily. “I’ll stop.”

Nothing happened. The missing piece was settled into its place, but Emma could not see Regina any clearer. 

“Goodbye, Regina.”

Nothing came in reply. Emma suspected that maybe Regina said what she needed and left.

What Emma didn’t know, is that once she replaced the missing shard, Regina could no longer hear her at all.

 

Regina wiped her tears. The last she heard from Emma was her agreement, that she would stop. Then nothing. 

There were no more shattered vines crossing the mirror. Regina suspected that meant Emma was no longer available to speak as usual. 

Until the symbols along the edges of the mirror began to glow. Regina’s eyes widened and she jumped back as the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. The sound of shattering glass tore at her memory, it sounded just like that night, the first time it shattered.

Regina watched as the mirror before her returned to its shattered state. The piece that was once missing in its center, -a hole of darkness whenever she spoke to Emma-, fell from the mirror and tumbled to the floor. 

Regina stepped cautiously forward. She bent down to pick up the piece, turning it over in her hand. It looked unassuming enough.

Regina set it back into its place. 

She climbed into bed but did not sleep that night. She was afraid of the dreams that might plague her. She was also too preoccupied by thoughts of what ending everything surrounding her, Emma, and the mirror would do. 


	15. Chapter 15

Emma ignored the texts that came from Regina, deleting them as quickly as they came so she wouldn’t be tempted to reply. It threw her into turmoil, wanting to do as Regina asked but then not wanting to hurt Regina. 

Yet there were parts of her already questioning that. Wasn’t it already too late for that? Wasn’t cutting Regina off hurting her? Hadn’t Regina also cut her off? That hurt. 

Emma went into work, aching at the thought of the last one. 

“Emma!” Gold greeted her. He looked at her as if he’d been waiting all morning.

Emma checked the clock. She wasn’t late. 

“Good morning, Gold.”

His grin was wide, his grins and smiles never fully reached his eyes, often leaving Emma a little creeped out. If Gold was smiling like that though, she knew it meant good things. 

Gold gestured to his office. “Come in.”

Emma followed him, frowning as she tried to think of what he could possibly want. 

Gold pointed to some paperwork on his desk. 

“I have a number of clients you can take up as your first. These ones ran out on their bails. You’ve done really well, and if you get these two done within the week, I’ll be hiring you on as a full time, full made bail-bondsman, woman, person. Whatever you decide to call yourself.” 

Emma glanced down at the paperwork. She shuffled through the first pages which included the clients in questions’ information. The rest of the paperwork looked to be everything she needed to fill out for her new role. 

Gold expected her to fill it out by the end of the week on her own time, Emma knew. She smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Gold.”

He flapped a hand at her. “Don’t thank me just yet. Get the clients first, and if you do, you can thank me once you’re promoted.”

Emma nodded, looking at the name of her first client and almost laughing to herself at the irony of that one as well. Will Scarlet. She recognized the picture of him paper-clipped to the form that included all other relevant information about him as the young man she’d been speaking to at Regina’s engagement party. 

The thought of Regina caused an ache to press at her chest but Emma pushed it away as she focused on a strategy for finding and retaining Will Scarlet in order to return him to the police. 

 

Regina glanced at her watch. Henry had an hour until his next appointment. 

She was halfway through the second to last box they needed to check for the file on Henry’s birthmother. If the file ended up being in the last box, Regina was going to chalk it up to fate having a good, long laugh at her. 

As she reached the last item in this particular box, Regina frowned at what she held. 

It was a drawing, in a five year old’s style with crayons. One of Henry’s old drawings, that she kept.. 

Something itched at the back of Regina’s mind as she stared at the stick figures and bad spelling. Something that told her that maybe, at one point in time the image was different. That couldn’t be, could it?

Except, this was a picture Henry drew of two taller stick figures and a smaller one. The shaky ‘Henry’ with it backwards ‘r’ was unmistakable. The other two figures labeled ‘Mom’ and ‘Ema’. They all stood together, Henry between Emma and Regina, almost like, like a family. 

“Mom?” Henry called. 

Regina quickly put the crayon-drawing back into the box and pushed it away. She opened the final box and rummaged through.

Henry entered her office. “Have you found it yet?”

“This is the last box.” Regina told him. She pulled out old magazines they should probably get rid of. “Doesn’t look too promising, I’m sorry Henry.”

Henry glanced at the wristwatch Regina got him when he turned 15. “It’s okay Mom, we should probably get moving anyway if I’m going to make it to my appointment on time.” 

“Okay, just-,” Regina reached the bottom of the box, scraping her nails over it to make sure she didn’t miss anything. They caught on something flimsy. Regina smiled at Henry as she pinched the edges of what she knew she had found.

She pulled a manila folder from the bottom of the box. Regina held it out, in large red marker it was labeled,  _ Henry’s Birthmother!  _ As if to scream at Regina what it’s contents were. 

Henry took the file, his smile the largest Regina was witness to in some time. 

It was also a little watery as he fought to contain the tears Regina could see forming at the edges of his eyes. 

“Thanks ma.” He came out a little choked. “You didn’t have to hold onto this.”

“I did, Henry.” After what happened, she held onto it because she realized that there might come a day when Henry might ask for it again. Regina wouldn’t deny him that time. 

He didn’t open the file.

“We should head out.” He told her. “I can open this while I talk to Archie.”

Regina nodded. She wasn’t going to pry. Henry was opening up in his own time with her lately, and she liked that. 

 

Emma stepped out of Gold’s, a plan in mind for catching the first of her perps. She needed to scout out his workplace, then his home. She’d already called his job at the docks. Will Scarlet had not come in all week, but they gave her what they knew about places he enjoyed hanging out at. Emma would try his home address before those. 

“Emma!”

Emma halted at that voice and sincerely hoped it wasn’t who she thought it was. She turned, slowly, hoping that as she did, maybe someone else would appear. 

Regina marched towards her, a determined look on her face. 

“You’ve been ignoring me.” Regina declared. 

Emma didn’t bother denying that. 

“Yes. I’m, sorry.” Emma didn’t know what else to say. She couldn’t very well much tell Regina about her promise to another Regina from the future. Or explain anything about what was going on might be the result of the mirror. It all sounded crazy even to Emma’s own experience and she was  _ living it. _

Regina wasn’t having it. “I want to know why.”

Emma looked around, they were in the middle of the sidewalk, people walking around them. “We should-, come on.” 

Emma led the way around the corner. There was a bit of nook between buildings where they could speak out of the way and have a little bit of privacy. 

She turned to Regina once they were a little more alone. “I’m not sure if I should come around anymore.” 

There. She would try to let her down easily. 

Regina frowned at Emma. “Is this because of Robin, and how he was acting the other evening? Henry?”

Emma stepped back, surprised at the mention of Henry. “No! Henry is wonderful.”

“He’s a wonderful kid, Regina. You’re doing really well with him.”

Emma noticed the flush curling around Regina’s cheekbones and cursed herself. She was supposed to be getting Regina to let her go. 

Regina stepped toward her. Emma stiffened. 

“Robin, then?” Regina was watching her, as if watching for her reaction. 

Emma’s heart pounded in her chest. She was beginning to sweat. She didn’t know how to do this. Not when she didn’t want it. 

“He, I don’t think he’s going to like me being around, Regina.” Emma told her. 

Regina nodded. She stepped back, sighing. “He doesn’t.” 

Emma frowned at that. Her concern threw all caution out of the window as she inquired, “Hey. What happened?”

Regina’s forearms wrapped themselves around her navel. She turned halfway from Emma. “We got into it, the other night, after you left.”

Something thick caught in Emma’s throat. She inhaled to calm herself. “What happened?” 

Regina looked steadily at the brick wall that hid them away from the rest of the world. 

“He didn’t hurt me, not exactly.” 

Emma reached out, Regina flinched, then relaxed as Emma wrapped her fingers around her arm, gently. “Tell me.”

“He told me he doesn’t trust your intentions.” Regina stopped Emma pulling away with her own hand placed over Emma’s. “He told me that I’d agreed to marry him.”

Regina turned towards Emma, confusion written across her lovely features. “That eventually I wouldn’t need anyone else and he wanted to move up the wedding date.”  

Regina looked away. “He also, he wanted more but, I told him that I wasn’t feeling well. He knocked over a lamp. I think it was an accident, but I’m not so sure.”

That didn’t make Emma feel any better. 

“Regina, I…”

“It’s okay, Emma.” 

Emma shook her head. “It’s not.” 

“I should’ve at least answered your messages, but I’m afraid.” It was the best she could give. It was the truth. Emma was still afraid.

“Of what?” Regina stepped into her. 

Emma was overwhelmed. Regina was much too close. Emma could  _ feel _ the slight height difference. She was breathing Regina in, she was intoxicated. 

“Of you.” Emma admitted just as Regina’s lips met her own. 

Emma’s arms wrapped themselves around Regina as she got caught up in the feeling burning though her chest. Regina had a hand curling through her loose locks. Her other hand curled against Emma’s collarbone. It was wonderful.

It was all too much. Emma pulled away, dashing the blossoming feelings away with her memories of reality. Regina asked her to stop interfering in her past. Regina was engaged to be married to a horrible man. Emma didn’t know if stopping her marriage would even really have the desired result. For all she knew, it could make Robin worse sooner and put Regina in danger. 

Regina still had a future if she didn’t interfere. That, Emma knew, even if it came with painful memories. 

“I’m sorry.” Emma whispered, awkwardly. 

Regina shook her head. “No. No I shouldn’t have. That was stupid of me.”

“It wasn’t.” Emma reassured her. “I think we should-,”

“Stop seeing each other?” Regina’s voice hitched as she said it. 

“It might be for the best.” Emma told her. 

“Right.” 

Regina looked at Emma, as if she were memorizing her face one, final time. She stepped up, pressing a kiss to Emma’s cheek.

“Goodbye, Emma.” 

Emma felt as though the world were crushing her as she spoke those words for the second time, unbeknownst to Regina, “Goodbye, Regina.”

 

Regina’s chest ached as she went over the new memories that were now a part of her history. The ache felt as hard and heavy to bear as it had then. Emma’s rejection made sense to her, she understood there was more reason than just the circumstances surrounding how they got involved. That Emma was trying to stop them before they got anymore involved as Regina asked.  

It didn’t stop the depth of the pain. 

She waited outside of Archie’s for Henry. She saw Henry come out, shaking hands with Archie, a slight smile on his face as they did their goodbyes. Regina started the car as she watched Henry turn away, a deep-thinking frown covering his young features. 

He climbed into the car, file under one arm. 

“Session go well?” Regina inquired as she began the drive home. 

“Yeah.” Henry seemed preoccupied with his thoughts. 

Regina hummed. She continued to drive in silence the whole way home. It wasn’t unusual for Henry to be lost in thought after a session with Archie. 

She returned to the kitchen to pull out the dinner she prepared before leaving to pickup Henry. Henry followed her. He held the file out to Regina.

“I met my birth mother once.” He informed her. 

His tone turned to accusation as he continued, “You were friends with her.”

Regina’s nostrils flared. Impossible. She would’ve remembered being friends with Henry’s birthmother!

She took the file, opening it.

Regina dropped it as she saw the picture inside. She kneeled to pick the picture up. She still ached from a rejection ten years gone as she looked down at a photo of one, Emma Swan. 


	16. Chapter 16

Emma half-expected Regina to appear that night and speak to her through the mirror, but she never came. The mirror was no longer shattered. Emma woke up the morning after replacing the missing shard to find its depths clear and unbroken and as good as new. It stunned her at first, but the sight of the unshattered mirror lost its novelty after a few days. 

Ruby took her out but quickly sent her home, telling Emma that “sad drunks were bad drunks.” Emma had to agree, despite wanting to drown her sorrows. It was for the best. 

A knock at her door brought her out of her thoughts. Emma frowned as she left her room. She wasn’t expecting anyone, not even Ruby looking for someone to care for her after getting too drunk. 

Emma opened the door and her frown deepened at the sight of Regina on her doorstop. 

“You can’t be here.” Emma told her. “We can’t. We can’t do this.”

“I know.” Regina told her. “I’m just…can I come in?”

Emma glared down the empty hallway behind Regina. 

“Okay but, we need to make this quick, and then you need to leave.” Emma had to be harsh. She couldn’t allow Regina back in or Emma was afraid she, herself would never be able to let go. 

“I wanted to apologize for earlier. I sort of lost my mind.” Regina began. “I also, wanted to give you this.” 

She held out a paper airplane. Henry’s handwriting on the wings. ‘Ema’ it read. 

“Henry asked that I give it to you, the next time I saw you. Since we aren’t going to see each other…” Regina drifted. 

Emma took the paper plane. She held it like a precious treasure. “You came here to give me a paper plane?”

“Henry made it. Open it up.” Regina told her. 

Emma unfolded the plane. She noticed while playing with Henry that he often drew on the paper then folded it, leaving pictures and words on the insides. Henry told her he was leaving secret messages in them when she asked him about it.

‘To Ema, I had fun. Come bak one day soon’

Emma would have to be a monster not to find the message adorable. She could feel herself tearing up a little. 

“This is,” she choked. “Tell Henry I say thank you. I wish I could.” 

Regina nodded. 

“I’m just, I’m going to put this away somewhere safe.” Emma needed a moment away from Regina to pull herself together. 

She stepped into her room, refolding the plane as she went. Placing the plane on her dresser, Emma didn’t hear Regina follow her. 

She glanced into the reflection of the mirror now replaced on the dresser to see Regina frowning at it. 

“Where did you get that mirror?” Regina wanted to know. 

Emma didn’t miss a beat. 

“Your mother.”

“She gave it to you?” Regina looked hurt by that revelation. 

Emma shook her head. “It was broken. She wanted it thrown out. I took it.”

“Oh.” 

Emma eyed it. She could see the obvious envy in Regina’s eyes. “Why don’t you take it, now that it’s repaired?”

Regina looked at her, surprised. 

“Are you sure?” 

Emma shrugged. She knew it was supposed to get back to her somehow anyway. If she was going to speak to Emma in the future. 

“It should be yours.” 

“I-, thank you Emma.” Regina approached the mirror and grasped the edges, picking it up in clear admiration of it. 

Emma figured it was all full circle. She met Regina though the mirror. She found the shard in Regina’s attic and took it without Regina really knowing. She replaced the shard and it somehow repaired itself. Maybe all along she was simply supposed to make sure the mirror got back to Regina after it’s odd detour to Emma.

Regina turned to Emma, holding the mirror out and looking into its clear depths and jokingly chanted, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall.”

Emma grimaced, remembering how they met. 

“Emma? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Emma led the way out of her room. “You should go.”

“Yes.” Then, “I’m going to miss you, Emma.”

Emma closed her eyes as Regina opened the door to her apartment. “I’m going to miss you too.”

 

Regina was in a panic. She tried calling into the mirror all night to no avail. There was no response. Emma was gone or the mirror no longer worked or it was all pointless because maybe the mirror only brought them together to rip them apart again.

She held a crumpled paper from the file in her grip. She’d been panicking all night, alternating between calling to Emma through the mirror and beating her fists against its cracked surface causing shards to fall from its frame. 

_ ‘Emma Swan. DOB: October 23, 1983. Workplace: Gold’s. Position: Bail-bondsman. Died: August 1, 2006.  _

They were little more than two months away from August 1 st . If Regina couldn’t get Emma to hear her through the mirror, then Emma was going to die anyways.

Regina replaced mirror shards in their places within the frame as if she were doing a puzzle with shaking hands.

She was crying.

“Please Emma. I need you to know, I was afraid. I’m afraid now, but for a different reason.”

She thought about Henry. About the pain she saw in his eyes when he realized he’d met his birth mother. The betrayal he showed when it occurred to him that Emma was once Regina’s friend. 

She thought back on the heaviness of Emma’s protective rejection. Of how now, she could see why it was done and how selfless that made Emma. 

Regina thought about the feelings invoked during their kiss. She still felt the echo of them ten years later, faint, but still there, and still loud enough that Regina knew if Emma were to give her past self any sign of hope she would give them a chance. 

Finally, as Regina placed the last piece that had fallen out, the central shard that was consistently missing throughout their talks, Regina thought about her most recent memory that came to her as she worked to replace the shards. Of Emma giving her a repaired and unbroken mirror. 

She sniffed. It would all be to no point now. Still, she spoke anyway.

“I was afraid.”

A part of her hoped maybe her past self might hear her. She didn’t know the consequences of what that could be, speaking to her own past instead of someone else who seemed to be boundlessly threaded into her life. Regina didn’t care anymore. She needed the past to change.

“I was afraid of loving her and letting her love me.” Regina said. “Now she’s going to die. She’s going to die on August 1 st , 2006. She’s Henry’s birth mother. The only way I can think of to save her, would be to make sure I’m the one with her.”

Regina sobbed. “I could live with the last ten years written differently. If I could go back myself, now and risk my whole future for her, I would.”

This kind of loss was so strange. Emma died a little over four months after their first meeting. If it wasn’t for the other twists in their paths that Emma made happen, Regina probably would have never known her beyond that single night. 

Regina hated that she only knew about her loss ten years too late. She was going to miss out on Emma again, and it was all her fault.

She was afraid.


	17. Chapter 17

Emma stayed busy as the summer blew by. Gold had plenty of work for her, enough that Emma quit her second job with Leroy and the Seven Sons Moving Co.

Drinks with Leroy and Ruby moved to the weekends. Daytimes spent chasing and tracking people down often left Emma tired and sore. She was good at her new position. 

She was also, maybe, kind of throwing her full attention into her work to stop the ache that would sometimes haunt her at night. Her mind would wander back to someone she only knew briefly but nevertheless left themselves seared into her memory. 

A single kiss she couldn’t forget was still buzzing on her lips. Emma even tried to forget by sleeping with a new girl and guy three weekends in a row. Only to wake up the next morning, pulling on her pants, a shameful and sick feeling in her gut.

She slept on her couch or at Ruby’s or the new friend she made in the receptionist, Elsa’s. It was difficult sleeping in her room when she half-expected to see a black-framed mirror and hear Regina call to her. Her room felt like it was closing in, she was lonelier than ever, even as she filled her free time with friends and her work was spent chasing perps.

 

Emma occupied her usual stool at the bar at Bad Granny’s. Ruby tended the bar as she often did on Friday nights. 

Emma nursed a cocktail Ruby was trying out, a ‘Poisoned Apple’. It wasn’t bad. Not quite Emma’s usual preferences in her mixed drinks but it would at least be a hit among the college students that came to her grandmother’s bar for its hole-in-the-wall vibe.

Ruby would check in on her whenever the bar wasn’t busy, but it was a Friday night, and as the night wore one, the frequencies of her check-ins became less and less. 

Emma was thinking of leaving, her cocktail finally empty when Ruby returned with another drink.

“I’ve been wanting to ask,” Ruby started.

Emma took a sip of the cocktail. A normal whiskey sour. She sighed, relieved not to be Ruby’s guinea pig for the rest of the night.

“I got an invite to a wedding. I need a plus one.” Ruby tossed down a white enveloped. “This was dropped off the other day. I’m surprised because we didn’t even stay that long-,”

Emma didn’t hear the rest of Ruby’s rambling as she slipped the invitation out of the envelope. She felt all the blood draining from her body. 

_ Robin Hood and Regina Mills _

_ Invite you to celebrate with them _

_ As they make their wedding vows _

_ Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. August 1st, 2006.  _

_ The Waterfront Plaza _

“They sure like that Waterfront, don’t they?” Ruby had come around the bar to stand behind Emma. Emma jumped. She dropped the invitation unceremoniously on the bar top.

“I don’t think I can go.” Emma pointed at the date. “It’s on a Tuesday. There is no way Gold let’s me out of work for a stranger’s wedding.”

Bile rose in Emma’s throat as she spoke the word ‘stranger’. Before ending things, Regina was fast becoming the closest person Emma had ever known. Closer even than Ruby, and Emma knew she kept her at a slight distance because that’s just who she believed herself to be. Deserving of her slight isolation and distance from other people. A lifetime of abandonment taught her that.

She couldn’t go to this wedding.

“Isn’t there a bit of freelancing element to this bail-bondsman thing?” Ruby reminded Emma.

“He’ll still want me to check in. I can’t Ruby. Sorry.” Emma doubled down on her answer. She couldn’t see Regina get married to Robin. She wouldn’t watch knowing the future. 

“I guess I’ll take Leroy. Ooh. Or maybe I can get Elsa to ask for the day off.” Ruby stuck her tongue out at Emma. “She’s not a workaholic.”

Emma shook her head at Ruby. Ruby didn’t and couldn’t know her real reasons. She would take the teasing. 

She glared down at the invitation one last time before draining her cocktail. The wedding was only a week away. 

 

Gold called her in as she pushed her first perp of the day into the police station. 

“Emma.” If it was at all possible, he seemed happier than usual to see her. “You have been doing well at this job, more than usual lately.” 

“Which is saying something because you have been doing great work since starting.” Gold clapped his hands together. He looked pleased. 

“I want to propose something.” He gestured to the seat on the other side of his desk. Emma took it. 

“What would that be?” Emma worked harder in the last week as she tried to distract herself. Gold even got friends of his to send work her way as she brought people in and sent Graham, one of his other bondsman with Emma with instructions to “follow her lead.”

Emma knew it annoyed Graham but couldn’t help feeling a little smug. It meant Gold saw her work as superior.

“I need an associate.”

Emma sat up straighter in her seat. Another reason she was working so hard was so that she could save money up. As a bondsman employed by someone else she merely got a smaller cut of what Gold made for putting up funds for people’s bail. As Gold’s associate, Emma would have access to the company’s funds, supplemented by her own to put up bail on the behalf of clients. If they defaulted, she could get them herself or send others out. Gold was basically offering to make her a partner of his company. 

It was more money and Emma might even be able to move out of her apartment. 

“I’m interested.” Emma told Gold without hesitation. “Tell me what you need me to do.”

Gold smiled. 

“I have one more major jumper I would like for you to find. Find this one, and when you return, we can go over paperwork and teaching you. I suspect it will take you at least a few days to track him. He’s quite the runner.”

 

**_August 1st, 2006_ **

Emma checked her watch. Noon. She sat in her yellow bug outside of her assignment’s last known address. Gold was right, the man was a runner. He even ran out on his latest rent’s due, taking what little he had and skipping out of the apartment before they could collect the bill. 

She glared down at the picture of Killian Jones. He looked like the average grifter. His crimes listed includes petty theft, possession, and larceny. 

Emma sighed. His work and home address were a bust. She looked down at her notes. The landlord gave her some names of people, but without numbers it wasn’t enough. A few people that worked with him at a bar were able to give her frequent hangouts, however. 

She looked over the list of places. She should try the docks first. Emma was hesitant to, however. She would end up having to drive by the Waterfront Plaza, though she was sure if she hurried she could bypass any possible-,

She stopped herself from thinking about it, taking a deep, steadying breath. She could do this. She could get through this. One more day and the future would be sealed.

Emma glanced at her watch.

Would it be so bad if she did what she really wanted to do? If she dropped by and caught a glimpse of this day?

Part of her needed to see Regina and know that she would be okay.

She also knew she needed to catch Killian Jones if she wanted this promotion. 

Mind made up, Emma turned the ignition.


	18. Chapter 18

**_August 1st, 2016_ **

Regina woke up to the smell of coffee. Was Henry up early?

She rolled over. The bed was still warm. She smiled, hugging the pillow and nearly crinkling the note on top of it. She picked the note up. 

_ Happy Anniversary. _

Regina stretched, groaning. She was sore. The good kind of sore. The kind of sore that told her she’d had a good night. 

 

Emma stood outside of the plaza. She kept expecting to see Regina. To hear the signs that the wedding was starting, but as 2:00 ticked by nothing happened. 

A commotion reached her ears from the plaza. Emma stepped into the pavilion where the wedding was supposed to be held. She saw Robin yelling in the face of Cora Mills who stood her ground without flinching. A suited groomsman grabbed him, pulling him away.

Emma spotted Ruby and Leroy in the back row of seats. 

“What happened?” Emma questioned as she stepped up to her friends.

“Emma!” Ruby carped. “I thought you couldn’t make it!”

“I had a little bit of time.” Emma shrugged.

Leroy leaned across Ruby.

“Runaway bride. Seems she got cold feet. No one can find her.” Leroy looked near-gleeful about it. 

“I saw her, though.” He pulled a flask from his button-up shirt pocket. “I was on my way back from the bathroom.”

Ruby held her hand out. Leroy shared the flask as Emma asked, “Did you see where she might have been running?”

“Not too many places a bride can run around the Waterfront.” Leroy nodded over Emma’s shoulder. 

Emma turned to look where Leroy indicated. 

_ Of course. _

 

Henry’s laugh could be heard from upstairs. Regina could smell breakfast being made. She pulled on her robe. Kathryn gave her the day off, with the instruction, “Have a wonderful anniversary.”

 

Emma found her in the same place they first met. She followed her instincts, slamming into the bathroom door without any caution.

Regina, in her wedding dress in the bathroom in a hotel bar. She looked so brokenly beautiful to Emma’s eyes. Emma shut the door, locking it behind her. 

“I almost hoped you would come but-,” Regina swallowed.

Emma was breathing fast, this was all now, or never. If Regina was choosing to walk away, then that meant, she didn’t know what it meant. It meant the future wasn’t set in stone or something to that effect.

“I almost didn’t.” Emma admitted.

She saw the Waterfront and turned the bug, parking it illegally. “I probably have a ticket, I kind of left my bug parked on a sidewalk.”

Regina’s chuckle was wet with tears.

Emma stepped up, wiping her tears away. 

“I should have come sooner.” Emma said.

Regina shook her head.

“Maybe this was all how it was supposed to be.”

Emma shook her head. She laughed. “If only you knew how untrue that is.”

She pressed her lips to Regina’s. Regina whimpered against her mouth.

“I promise, I will spend the rest of our lives making sure you’re happy.” Emma told her. “I also hope to tell you everything, if you let me?”

Regina looked at her in confusion.

“About?” 

“A mirror, me, and how there might be more to the story of how we met?”

Regina looked curious. “If this has to do with the voices in the mirror...” 

Emma kissed her again. 

“What was that for?” Regina rested her head against Emma’s as she pulled away.

“Can I tell you over dinner?” 

Regina pulled away, she gestured down at her dress. “I might want to take care of something, first?” 

Emma laughed. 

“Just know, I will be with you, every step of the way.”

 

Regina stepped into the kitchen. Henry was helping his mother make breakfast, dancing as he stirred pancake batter into a bowl. 

“Mornin’, Mom.” He smiled. He gestured toward the coffee maker. “Ma made your usual.”

Regina pulled away from the door and pulled down her favored coffee mug, pouring herself a cup. Pale arms wrapped around her waist from behind. Soft lips pressed against her  jaw. 

“Morning, wonderful.” 

Regina smiled.

“Good morning, Emma.”

Emma waited for Regina to take a few sips of her coffee and set it down before swinging Regina around in her arms. “I love you. Happy Anniversary.”

Regina pressed a kiss to her wife’s lips as Henry made grossed out noises in the background. “Happy Anniversary. I love you.”

 

_ “I have to confess something.” _

_ “What is it?” Emma asked. _

_ “You told me the story of how you met me, another me from the future and spoke to me through the mirror.” Regina began. “What I haven’t told you is, she spoke to me. she told me that you died yesterday.” _

_ Emma looked floored. “What? How?” _

_ “You were chasing a bail jumper named Killian Jones. He ran through a warehouse on the docks and you gave chase. You didn’t see the trap, and fell.” _

_ Emma was quiet. She seemed to be processing the information Regina told her. They sat in a park, a walk they were taking after their third date. Emma having told her the story of how they met on their last date. It was Regina’s turn to tell Emma the reason she wasn’t so shocked by her story about the mirror. _

_ “Does-, are you still able to talk to yourself?” Emma asked.  _

_ Regina shook her head. “I heard her. At first I thought I was losing my mind, hearing the mirror speak my worst fears with my own voice, but then I spoke back. After the first time we spoke, I never heard back from her again. By then, I had agreed to move up the wedding.” _

_ “Why-?”  _

_ “You didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. You thought you were doing right by me. I had to respect your wishes, as you respected mine.” _

_ Then she confessed. _

_ “I was the one who left the invitation at your friend’s bar. I hoped you wouldn’t be able to resist showing up.” _

_ Emma looked abashed at that. “There was a lot of internal debate over it.” _

_ “Why did you-?” _

_ “I was going to go to the docks when I left the altar, but ended up in the bathroom when it occurred to me that I might be too late.”  _

 

Regina glanced at the black-framed mirror that now hung in their dining room. Not too unlike when her mother would hang it up. 

It was whole and unbroken as the day Emma gave it back to her. Emma laughed at something Henry said.

Emma glanced at her, leaning over to press a kiss to her cheek. There were never enough between the two of them. 

All was as it should be. 

**Author's Note:**

> I like to leave little bits of foreshadowing, clues and just tiny things for readers to pick up on.  
> Leave comments on what yall manage to pick up, I want to see who can catch them all. ;)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Mirror Mirror [ ART ]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15714048) by [mippippippi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mippippippi/pseuds/mippippippi)




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